{"id":1751,"slug":"rule-keep-ai-coding-at-the-margin-not-as-spine","title":"R2 — Keep AI-assisted coding at the margin; it lowers assembly labor recently but is not a structural driver","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["editorial-discipline","commodity-web-parts","bespoke-build-economics"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** Treat AI-assisted coding (2022–present) as a **recent accelerant** that lowers assembly labor at the margin. **Never** use it to anchor a falling-cost argument.\n\n**Why:** The three durable drivers ([[rule-three-drivers-decade-2004-2014-not-ai]]) got cheap on **dated, pre-AI timelines** (2004–2016). The case stands entirely on infrastructure + parts + data. Anchoring on AI invites the reader to dismiss the argument as hype-driven the next time AI hype turns.\n\n**How to apply:**\n- AI mentions land *after* the structural case in any article.\n- Vendor / agency pitch decks that anchor on AI as the reason \"real software is now cheap\" trip [[rule-flag-vendor-incentive-on-cost-claims]].\n- See [[caveats-falling-cost-floor-vendor-incentive]] for the formal quarantine.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"timeline-three-drivers-converge-2004-2014","title":"Timeline 2004–2014: the decade when each of the three historically-expensive parts independently got cheap","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"caveats-falling-cost-floor-vendor-incentive","title":"Caveats: AWS vendor framing quarantined; build-vs-buy vendor cost pages flagged; DrPeering single-source; sysadmin wages needs-verification","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-falling-cost-floor-real-web-functionality-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the falling cost floor of \"real\" web functionality for SMBs (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-three-drivers-decade-2004-2014-not-ai","title":"R1 — Anchor the falling-cost case on the decade 2004–2014 (infrastructure + parts + data); AI-assisted coding is NOT the spine","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:00.700Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:00.700Z"}