The tech creates the mess. The next wave sells the mop.

Every technology wave creates the problems the next wave is built to solve. Email created spammers — and a $7bn email security industry. Networks created attackers — and a $200bn cybersecurity market. Passwords created credential theft — and 1Password at a $6.8bn valuation. Ecommerce created the returns crisis — and ThredUp turned discarded returns into $1.4bn of revenue.

The infographic below maps seven of these problem-to-product cycles from the last thirty years — and the pattern AI is already starting to repeat.

Spam filters were built because email created spammers. Cybersecurity was built because networks created attackers. The question worth asking right now: which AI-created problem are you close enough to see first? The businesses that name it — and solve it — before it peaks are already being founded.

Sources: Symantec Annual Intelligence Reports 2009–11 (spam peak); Stratistics MRC / MarkntelAdvisors (email security market, 2025); Cybersecurity Ventures (global cybercrime cost, 2023); NordPass Top 200 Most Common Passwords 2025; 1Password Series C announcement 2022; NRF / Happy Returns (US returns 2023); ThredUp 2024 Annual Report; Mordor Intelligence (dark kitchen market, 2023); CDC Sleep Data 2024; RAND Corporation sleep productivity estimate 2023; Substack paid subscriber announcement 2025; IAB Podcast Advertising Revenue Report 2024; MarketsandMarkets AI governance forecast 2025; Market.us deepfake detection market 2025.

Post 13 of the "Every Era Has Its Reboot" series. | redebuter.com