Where is the economics leak?
Attract people already experiencing the cost, margin, quality, rework, or routing problem AIEL solves.
AI Economics Lab episodes
Videos for expensive AI decisions.
Problem videos show where AI economics leak. Proof videos show what testing actually found. Decision videos show what should change. The goal is qualified buyers and better decisions, not generic AI traffic.
Three recurring formats
Problem → proof → decision.
Every episode should help a buyer recognize an expensive question, inspect evidence, or make a routing and spending decision.
What did the evidence show?
Use real tests, named models, transparent methods, or clearly labeled illustrative economics to demonstrate judgment.
What should change?
Answer the management question blocking action: spend more, spend less, route differently, escalate, or retest.
Publishing rule: every item names the buyer problem, who should care, the evidence or finding, the decision affected, and one natural next step. Adjacent analysis is labeled so it cannot be confused with core AIEL benchmark evidence.
All episodes
1 episode
Illustrative delivery-cost scenario8.0X
$416K traditional versus $52K compressed delivery under the episode assumptions.
Delivery-cost leverage, not financial ROI.Problem videoAdjacent economics analysis
Episode 01 / Forward-deployed engineering economics
The 8X Engineer
Same scope, priced twice. Why an expensive forward-deployed engineer can be the cheaper delivery system.
Who should careCTOs, VPs Engineering, AI product leaders, and technical managers deciding how to staff production AI delivery.
Buyer problemTeams compare engineering rates instead of total delivery-system cost and calendar time.
FindingIn the illustrative same-scope scenario, compressed FDE delivery is modeled at $52K versus $416K for a traditional multi-role path.
Decision affectedEvaluate total cost and time to accepted production scope, not the senior engineer's hourly rate alone.
Evidence boundaryAdjacent to AIEL's core model-routing research. This is delivery economics, not Benchmark #1 evidence.
Research and decision tools
The evidence does not depend on watching a video.
Core AIEL research remains inspectable on the site. Video packages the question and implication; the underlying method, data, or tool remains separate.
Benchmark #1
Tests whether cheaper, premium, or staged routes clear a pre-frozen acceptance threshold at the best complete economics.
- Buyer problem
- Model price or reputation is standing in for workload evidence.
- Decision
- Which route should run by default, and when should it escalate?
CPAO Scorecard
Forces the team to set acceptable first and count model, tools, retries, rework, human review, and validation before routing.
- Buyer problem
- The cheapest prompt is being mistaken for the cheapest usable outcome.
- Decision
- Which passing route has the lowest Cost per Acceptable Outcome?
Research Standards
Pre-registration, held-out testing, corrections, and independence rules make the evidence challengeable instead of promotional.
- Buyer problem
- A benchmark cannot support a high-stakes decision if the rules move after results are known.
- Decision
- Is this evidence strong enough to change spend, routing, or product policy?
Have the same question, but on your workloads?
The public evidence shows how the decision works. The $10K AI Economics Audit applies the same discipline to 3 to 5 representative workloads and tells you what should route differently, if anything.