Season 4 - Episode 25: If AI does the work faster, what are we paying for?
- Kristine Lium
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
When execution becomes abundant, value turns into a collective question.
As AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows, the way work is evaluated starts to feel less certain.
Outputs increase and processes accelerate, but the reasons we rely on to explain worth — time spent, effort applied, execution delivered — begin to feel insufficient. Not wrong, but incomplete.
This episode doesn’t aim to resolve that uncertainty. It stays with it, exploring how questions of judgement, responsibility, and trust begin to shape what gets valued, credited, and paid for when AI becomes part of the process.
Key topics
How effort loses its role as a reliable signal of value when execution scales
How questions of authorship, legitimacy, and responsibility surface across different kinds of work
What judgement means when machines can produce at scale
Why value becomes harder to point to — and more important to consciously stand behind
Episode 25: If AI does the work faster, what are we paying for?
– Revisiting previous conversations with Sofie Marin & Erik Rosales
This weeks episode
AI is no longer sitting at the edges of work. It’s moving into the middle — quietly reshaping how things are made, decided, and delivered.
For a long time, we’ve relied on effort as a stand-in for value. Hours worked, complexity handled, expertise accumulated. These signals made sense in a world where execution was scarce and slow. But when AI can generate, analyse, and produce at scale, those signals begin to lose their meaning.
“When execution becomes cheap, effort stops being a reliable measure of value."
This doesn’t mean value disappears. It means it becomes harder to point to.
In creative work, this shows up as questions of authorship and legitimacy. In knowledge work, it surfaces in pricing models that no longer map cleanly to outcomes. And in archival or cultural contexts, it raises deeper questions about what we choose to preserve, validate, and stand behind over time.
Rather than treating these as technical problems to solve, this episode treats them as conversational problems to surface.
“The challenge isn’t deciding what AI can do — it’s deciding what we’re willing to stand behind.”
Judgement, responsibility, and trust begin to matter more precisely because machines can do so much. Not as abstract ideals, but as practical forces shaping what gets paid for, credited, and legitimized.
This episode of Simply Briefed doesn’t offer a new framework for pricing work in the age of AI. It does something quieter — and arguably more necessary. It creates a shared baseline for asking better questions. Questions that can support future agreement, even if we don’t have it yet.
In a moment where AI conversations often rush toward answers, this is an invitation to pause — and decide what kind of value we want to build around.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify!
Host: Kristine Lium
About the guests
Name: Sofie Marin
Title: Founder & CEO Arts Dynamics, Creative / Tech Business Strategist, Board Member, Fuglesang Space Center
Background: Senior cultural affairs and business strategist, consultant and mentor in the intersection of creativity, tech, innovation and entrepreneurship for impact. Background in music, arts and culture in senior leadership positions (The Royal Dramatic Theater, Royal Swedish Opera, STIM). Founded award-winning production company From Sweden Productions.
Contact: LinkedIn / Arts Dynamics / sofie@artsdynamics.com
Name: Erik Rosales
Title: Artist and innovator. Currently on a mission to democratize conversations about artificial intelligence with the performance lecture, AI.DENTITY.
Background: + 20 years of experience at the intersection of digital innovation and performing arts. Focusing on pushing the boundaries of storytelling through new technology. Artistic Director for Digital Innovation at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm, pioneering projects integrating AI, VR, and interactivity into performances. A driving force behind Sirqus Alfon, blending physical theater, technology, and humor. He's toured internationally and won multiple awards. Recently, Erik presented his work at a TEDx event, combining cutting-edge technology and performing arts to ignite dialogue about our AI-driven future.
Contact: LinkedIn / AI.DENTITY / Sirqus Alfon / Tedx
👉 Listen to the episode and join the conversation about how we define value when AI becomes part of the process.
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