Field note 07 / Judgment

The Verification Tax

Plausible AI output is cheap. Enterprise teams pay for the evidence, constraints and maintenance required to act on it.

Bradley Fernandes26 February 2026First published on Substack

Reading note

The argument, kept in context.

This is the permanent portfolio entry for the piece. The complete essay remains on Substack, where it was first published and where the original discussion lives.

Core argumentPlausible AI output is cheap. Enterprise teams pay for the evidence, constraints and maintenance required to act on it.