Going Headless? On the Boundaries of Vertical AI Firms
Agents move the interface. The receipts stay put, and whoever holds them owns the defensible ground.
Hydari and Muzaffar have a clarifying economics paper on where vertical AI firms are headed as agents unbundle their apps.
Their move is to separate two boundaries people usually merge. The interface boundary can move; agents can slide in and reshape the front end. The accountability boundary usually can't. Durable value, they argue, concentrates in the cospecialized accountability assets: signoff, regulated workflows, evidence trails, systems of record.
For anyone building in legal or regulated markets, that's the tell. The receipts don't migrate, and whoever holds them holds the defensible ground.
Going Headless? On the Boundaries of Vertical AI Firms
Hydari and Muzaffar separate the interface boundary agents can move from the accountability boundary they usually can't, and show durable value concentrates in cospecialized accountability assets like signoff, evidence trails, and systems of record.