The default pitch for every AI agent startup right now is the same: “We do X, but cheaper.”
Customer support at $0.99/ticket instead of $15. SEO at $1,000/month instead of $8,000. Lead gen at 85% less than an agency. The math works. The margins are real.
And it’s a race to zero.
Every “agent does X cheaper” business is competing on cost against every other agent that can also do X cheaper. The moat is nonexistent. The only question is who undercuts whom first.
The more interesting question: what businesses can only exist because agents exist? Not “do the same thing at lower cost.” New categories with no pre-agent analogue.