Between 1780 and 1830, mechanised looms replaced hundreds of thousands of British weavers. The labour did not disappear — it shifted into operating, maintaining and managing the new machines.
AI follows the same playbook. Repetitive cognitive work is collapsing in cost; new value pools are opening for those who design, supervise and direct AI systems.
This piece extracts the strategic lessons from the Industrial Revolution for UK business owners navigating the AI transition.