Where did the
$4,950 go?
How artificial intelligence is changing the cost of value creation – and why it calls for a new business economics.
by Rüdiger Krause · e-book, paperback to follow
E-book as a download (EPUB, works with almost all e-readers and apps, including Kindle via “Send to Kindle”). Sold by our reseller Digistore24, who also sends your invoice. 60-day money-back guarantee. In Germany, the fixed book price of €9.99 applies. The paperback will be available on Amazon soon.
A logo costs $5,000. With AI, maybe $50.
So where did the other $4,950 go? The question sounds like simple arithmetic. It is the key to one of the biggest economic shifts of our time. Because this is not about logos. It is about texts, translations, software, analyses and advice, everything that turns knowledge into a result.
This is not another AI how-to book. It is an economic analysis: Where does value shift when intelligent work gets cheaper? Who gains, who is hit first, which markets emerge, and why can classical business economics no longer fully describe what is happening?
What you will find inside
- The five paths of the $4,950: from the buyer to brand-new demand
- What AI really makes cheaper and what becomes more valuable: judgment, trust, responsibility, context
- Current research explained clearly, with sources: from Stanford and the IMF to the OECD and the ILO
- New markets below the old price threshold
- Business Economics 2.0: production, HR, marketing, finance and controlling rethought
- Seven case studies, from a one-person business to a mid-sized firm with 40 employees
- 18 figures and 19 thinking models, brought together in the VALUE SHIFT model
- Your personal $4,950 worksheet
Who the book is for
For the self-employed and owners of small businesses, for managers in mid-sized companies and for employees in knowledge professions. And for everyone who wants to understand what AI is doing to prices, jobs and markets, without a business degree: every technical term is explained, and there is a glossary.
How the book is structured
About 160 pages in seven parts, from the prologue “The $5,000 Invoice” to the epilogue “The $4,950 Is Still There”.
Value is shifting
The $4,950 disappears. What happens when intelligence gets cheaper, and what stays valuable when knowledge gets cheap?
New demand, new markets
What people really buy, how skills turn into businesses and which markets suddenly become economically possible.
Business Economics 2.0
Production, HR, marketing, finance and controlling rethought, the company without classical departments and the VALUE SHIFT model.
So that you always know what ground you are standing on, the book separates five kinds of statements: fact, model, example, hypothesis and conclusion. Every chapter ends with the strongest counterargument.
All chapters
Part I · The $4,950 Disappears
1 When $5,000 Suddenly Costs $50 · 2 Where Did the $4,950 Go? · 3 What Happens When Intelligence Gets Cheaper?
Part II · How Value Creation Is Changing
4 The Job Is Not the Real Production · 5 The Copywriter, the Designer and the Programmer · 6 What Stays Valuable When Knowledge Gets Cheap?
Part III · The New Demand
7 What People Really Buy · 8 From Skill to Business
Part IV · The Markets That Can Emerge
9 When Things Suddenly Become Economically Possible · 10 The Economics of Quality of Life
Part V · Business Economics 2.0
11 Production Without a Classical Production Structure · 12 Human Resources Without the Classical Logic of Positions · 13 Marketing After the End of Mass Communication · 14 Financing and Controlling in the AI Economy
Part VI · The New Company
15 One Person, One AI, One Global Market · 16 From Business Plan to Market Test · 17 The New Competitive Advantage
Part VII · The New Business Economics
18 What Classical Business Economics Still Explains · 19 The Factors of Production in the AI Economy · 20 A New Model of Value Creation: VALUE SHIFT
Plus: your personal $4,950 worksheet, a glossary and a bibliography.
Written in Germany, relevant anywhere
This is the English edition of Wo sind die 4.950 €?. The examples use dollars. Facts, statistics and rules from German sources are given in euros, as in the original, and are marked as German. The mechanisms they illustrate are not specific to Germany.
About the author
Rüdiger Krause is a Certified Business Administrator (Geprüfter Betriebswirt, EQF level 7, equivalent to master's level) and the founder of Quantwohl in Germany. He spent his career in sales, in retail, wholesale and industry. His mission: value creation for small businesses.
Also by Rüdiger Krause: “Not Jobless. Founder.”, the 90-day plan to your own business idea.
Important: The book is an economic analysis and a basis for thinking. It is not legal, tax, financial or investment advice and does not guarantee success or income. It was created and translated with the support of artificial intelligence and reviewed by humans, who are responsible for it. All people and companies in the case studies are fictional.