04. The Vertical Revolution: When AI Becomes an "Industry Expert"

Smashed Looms and the Luddites

In 1811, in Nottinghamshire, England, a group of angry weavers broke into a factory at night. Within hours, they had smashed dozens of newly introduced wide-frame steam looms with hammers and axes.

These men were known as Luddites. In history books, they are often portrayed as anti-intellectual, backwards-looking thugs.

But if you traveled back in time, you would find they were actually the most skilled craftsmen of their day. They had spent a decade in apprenticeships to master the fine art of weaving to support their families. The roaring steam machines not only produced inferior fabric but could be operated by cheap, unskilled labor.

The Luddites smashed the machines not because they hated technology, but because they saw a desperate future: their “expert skills” were becoming worthless.

In 2026, we don’t need hammers, because the revolution is happening on screens. AI Agents are no longer just chatting; they are demonstrating “End-to-End” expert capabilities in vertical fields. This time, the panic isn’t among weavers, but among highly educated white-collar professionals.

1. “Autonomous Driving” for Coding

If you ask a senior programmer in 2026, “Are you still writing code?” He might answer, “No, I’m Managing Code.”

In 2023, we had GitHub Copilot. It was like a smart co-pilot; when you typed function, it would help you finish the brackets. You were still the pilot; you still had to watch the road.

By 2026, Coding Agents like Cursor and Windsurf have completely changed the game.

Scenario

You want to add a “Dark Mode” to your website.

• Traditional Way: You would modify CSS files, JavaScript logic, and backend configurations. You’d jump between 5 files and spend 2 hours debugging.
• Agent Way: You type into a chat box: “Add Dark Mode support to the site, inspired by Apple’s design.”
  • The Agent autonomously reads your entire project (thousands of lines).
  • It understands your design style.
  • It modifies 8 related files simultaneously.
  • It even runs the site, notices a button is unreadable, and fixes the bug itself.
  • 3 minutes later, it commits the code.

This is no longer completion; it is replacement. Low-level “coders” (people who just write repetitive code) are disappearing, but the demand for “System Architects” is skyrocketing—because one person can now command an AI squad to finish a project that previously required 20 people.

2. The Researcher’s “Telescope”: Deep Research

Information overload is a modern disease. If you need to write a report on “Global EV Battery Trends in 2026,” you would:

1. Search hundreds of keywords on Google.
2. Open 50 tabs, enduring ads and fluff.
3. Download 20 obscure PDF papers and use translation software to digest them.
4. Organize notes and summarize.

What does a Deep Research Agent do? It acts like a tireless top-tier detective:

• Autonomous Planning: It breaks down the problem, deciding to search for “Solid-state batteries” first, then “Sodium-ion.”
• Massive Reading: It visits 200 websites and reads 50 deep papers in 10 minutes.
• Cross-Verification: It finds Source A says costs dropped 10%, while Source B says they rose 5%. It doesn’t guess; it digs for raw data (like earnings reports) to verify who is telling the truth.
• Output Report: It delivers a 5,000-word deep dive with every data point linked to its source.

The cost of research is dropping from “Weeks” to “Minutes.” The barrier to entry is no longer “who knows more” or “who searches faster,” but “who can ask more penetrating questions.”

3. “Infinite Monkeys” in Creative & Design

In creative fields, Agents are winning through “Quantitative Violence.”

Previously, a designer needed a day for one poster. If the boss asked for 3 options, it was a nightmare. Today, a Marketing Agent can:

1. Analyze the competitor’s top ads over the last 6 months.
2. Generate 50 different copy variations (humorous, serious, warm).
3. Call image tools to generate 100 backgrounds.
4. Automatically combine them into 500 ad creatives.
5. Send these to a test environment to see which has the highest click-through rate.

This is the industrial version of the “Infinite Monkey Theorem”: as long as you try enough times, AI will eventually find the design humans love most.

Why is this a “Vertical Revolution”?

Because it breaks the Monopoly of Skill.

In the past, the logic of society was:

• You either pay for a service (hire a lawyer, outsource a project).
• Or you spend time learning a skill (learn coding, design, or a language).

Agents are commoditizing these expensive “expert skills.”

When you have a nearly free, on-demand “Legal Expert,” “Senior Coder,” or “Top Artist,” the competitive edge shifts:

• Previously based on Scale: More people meant more output.
• Future based on Vision: Whoever has the most unique ideas and can most effectively organize the flow of AI Agents wins.

Summary

• Coding Agents: Turning code into natural language, making everyone a software engineer.
• Research Agents: Turning information into knowledge, giving everyone PhD-level data-gathering skills.
• The Essence: AI has evolved from a “Chatting Tool” to an “Industry Expert” that delivers final results.

In the next chapter, we will discuss the other side of the coin: If Agents are so powerful, why isn’t the world fully automated yet? What are the “New Bottlenecks” that drive Agents crazy?