The Positionalization of Value in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper studies whether artificial intelligence changes the composition of market value from functional differentiation toward social image, rank, andbrand recognition. This positionalization of value is distinct from a shift towardphysically nonreproducible factors: a scalable good can retain a large status premium. Buyers have a two-dimensional primitive type, while an audience forms aBayesian posterior about owner quality from a recognizable ownership signal. Afirm commits to physical stock Q = Mn, so recognition can rise with output evenas exclusivity depends on penetration n in an audience of size M. The frameworkseparates the marginal status component that supports price from average statusvalue among owners. The firm’s first-order condition yields a cross-equation restriction linking the functional margin, marginal status demand, and its prevalence elasticity; a linked experiment supplies conditions under which these objects are separately identified. A numerical possibility result features lower penetration togetherwith higher output, price, and both marginal status shares. The mechanism remainsconditional: authenticity erosion, fragmented attention, direct observability of type,search, and countersignaling can reverse it. The paper proposes a producer–buyer–audience experiment and a candidate within-category field design to distinguishsocial inference from quality beliefs and private brand attachment. Whether AIcausally connects functional convergence to social-image value remains open.
Author: Ohanesian, Eduard
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7172324068
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