A decade ago, I started mapping the economics of AI on a blog called FourWeekMBA. Back then, the map was small, and the cycle was slow. Three years ago, when ChatGPT — as explored in the intelligence factory race between AI labs — crossed into the consumer mainstream, the map became a quarterly artifact. This year, the map redraws itself every time a four-billion-dollar lease closes. Earlier this month, it had seven layers. Today it has nine.

Two new layers earned their place. The first is the agentic harness — everything that surrounds a foundation model and makes it usable in production. The second is governance — the deliberate, paced release of frontier capability. Both layers were dormant a year ago. Both are now structural.
This is the workshop, compressed into a written piece. Four layers of analysis, in the Business Engineer format: the abstraction, the market map — as explored in the strategic map of AI market players — , the playbook, and what’s coming next.





![The Strategic Map of AI [Workshop] The Strategic Map of AI [Workshop]](https://i0.wp.com/fourweekmba.com/wp-content/plugins/contextual-related-posts/default.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)





