# 1.6 The paradigm and the products (/ai-worker-paradigm/from-chatbots-to-ai-workers/paradigm-and-products)

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title: "1.6 The paradigm and the products"
description: "How to keep the lasting shift apart from today's products, with four questions to ask of any product announcement."
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    at: 2026-10-12T20:06:08Z
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**In everyday life.** Streaming replaced video rental. That shift was real
even while one service's app was buggy and another had not yet reached your
country.

This book's thesis is that the move from message to task to role is lasting.
The products are less stable. Features arrive at different times, depending
on plan, region and rollout stage. Some are previews, and names change.

So keep two questions apart. *Is this a real shift in how work is done?*
That question belongs to the paradigm, and this book argues that it is.
*Can I use it today, on my plan, in my market?* That question belongs to the
dated boxes in each chapter's section on both AI vendors.

Mixing them up causes two opposite errors. One is to dismiss the paradigm
because a product is unfinished: "It's only a preview, so it doesn't
matter." The other is to build on a product claim that is not yet true for
you: "The launch post says it, so my client has it." Maria's Wednesday
mistake was a cousin of the second error — she trusted what the screen
implied and never asked where the spreadsheet was kept. You can avoid all
of these.

Ask four questions about any announcement:

1. **Which rung is it?** Does it search, answer, complete a task, or hold a
   role — that is, does it have continuity?
2. **Where does the work run, and where are results kept?** Which
   environment, and can you name the place the results live?
3. **Who is it acting as?** Your own login, or an identity of its own?
4. **What is its status?** Generally available, beta or preview, and on
   which plans and markets?

The third question points to the rest of the book. A task that acts as you
is fine for personal work. A worker that does a business process needs its
own identity, its own limits and a named human owner. When such a worker
does the work of one full-time role, this book calls it a **Digital FTE** —
FTE is short for full-time equivalent, a role's worth of work. And whatever
the AI vendor supplies, the book's ownership rule stays true: *The platforms
are rented. The knowledge and the controls are yours.*