The Business Engineer Concept Map
The context layer of AI business, in one map
Every Business Pill is one concept. Here they are together: 141 concepts in 8 layers, from the chips and power at the bottom to strategy at the top, joined by 254 relationships. Hover a concept to see what it connects to; click it to open the lesson.
141concepts
8layers
254relationships
79live now, 62 unlocking soon
Swipe sideways to explore the map; tap a concept to open its lesson.
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Hover any conceptLines show how concepts depend on, constrain or contrast with each other. Faded dots are lessons that unlock soon.
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The 8 layers
Read the stack from the bottom up. Compute and energy set what is possible; models and inference turn it into answers; agents turn answers into work; governance decides what agents may do; pricing and finance decide who pays; strategy decides who wins.
8 · Strategy & Markets 10 concepts
Complementary InputsCross-LicensingCustomer ZeroData FlywheelExtensibility Is ControlOutput per EmployeePanel DataSpan of ControlSwitching CostsSynergies
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: Enterprise AI: Software to Substrate · Five Defensible Moats in AI
7 · Finance & Capital 26 concepts
An Anchor CustomerAn OptionBacklogBinding LanguageBinding OrderBudget RequestBurn RateCapex and DepreciationCompound Annual Growth RateConcentrationConvertible PreferredExit FeeFinancial ConditionsForecast vs CommitmentFree Cash FlowMatching FundsNotice PeriodOperating LeveragePrepaymentPrimary and SecondaryResidual ValueRing-FencingRun-Rate RevenueSale-LeasebackSeller FinancingYear-over-Year Growth
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: The AI Capex Map · AI Data Centers
6 · Pricing & Unit Economics 16 concepts
A Cost TestA Sanity CheckAn Introductory PriceChurnCustomer Acquisition CostFramework AgreementsGross MarginGross vs Net SavingsIncrementalityOutcome-Based PricingProxy MeasureRoyaltiesTake RateThe Jevons ParadoxTotal Cost of OwnershipUsage-Based Pricing
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: Pragmatic Rigor vs Precision Theater · Tokenomics: The Economics of AI
5 · Trust, Risk & Governance 25 concepts
An AllegationAttack SurfaceConsentDeclared IdentityEarned AutonomyEgressEmbedded DependencyForm and SubstanceGuardrailsHuman in the Loop vs Human on the LoopKill SwitchLeast PrivilegeOne-Sided TermsPost-Market SurveillancePreliminary InjunctionPrompt InjectionRed TeamingRelayed ReportShadow AISovereign AIThe AI Audit ProblemThe Notification ClockTrusted ExecutionVerification CostWatermarking
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: Inside Anthropic's Permission Layer · Pragmatic Rigor vs Precision Theater
4 · Agents & Workflows 17 concepts
AI AgentsAgent MemoryAgentic CommerceBundle of TasksComputer UseCritical PathDiscardable SoftwareForward Deployed EngineersMCPMulti-Agent SystemsPhysical AIPreference GapProcess MapSystem of RecordThe Model and the HarnessThe Residency ModelTool Use
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: Agentic AI Stack · The Agentic Expansion Cascade
3 · Inference & Context 17 concepts
Context EngineeringContext WindowContext, Not CapabilityEmbeddingsFew-Shot PromptingInferenceModel DeprecationModel RoutingOn-Device AIPercentilesPrompt CachingRAGRate LimitsStructured OutputTemperatureTokensWhy AI Canβt Be Both Instant and Cheap
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: The Economics of an AI Prompt · The Harness Theory
2 · Models & Training 23 concepts
AI Evaluation as Acceptance TestAI HallucinationBenchmarksConsistencyData LabelingData QualityDistillationFine-TuningHidden ReasoningKnowledge CutoffMixture of ExpertsMultimodalOpen WeightsOverfittingParametersPretrainingQuantizationRLHFReasoning ModelsScaling LawsSynthetic DataTransformers and AttentionUnlearning
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: AI Quality Plateau · The Four Intelligence Moats
1 · Compute & Energy 7 concepts
Go deeper on businessengineer.ai: AI Data Centers · AI Memory Chokepoint
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The Business Engineer: 110+ frameworks that sit on top of this map