Publisher Book Information
The Trust Economy
A Second Great Renaissance
A nonfiction exploration of what may happen to business, trust, institutions, and individual capability as artificial intelligence becomes abundant and increasingly available to ordinary people.
- Title
- The Trust Economy
- Subtitle
- A Second Great Renaissance
- Author
- David Drillick
- Publisher
- Ailefant Books
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publication
- September 2026
- Language
- English
- Category
- Nonfiction — artificial intelligence, business, technology, and society
What the book is about
The Trust Economy begins with a simple premise: artificial intelligence is starting to make analytical capability and useful assistance much more abundant. The book asks what happens next—not as a prediction, but by following the consequences of new capability forward.
Its central business argument is that as AI makes information easier to find, compare, and analyze, verification becomes more important. When customers can investigate claims, compare evidence, and understand tradeoffs more cheaply, qualities that were once difficult to see can become economically visible. Trust, documentation, durability, transparency, service, and verifiable evidence may therefore gain competitive value.
The book extends that reasoning beyond commerce. It examines personal AI, trustworthy AI architecture, institutions, standards, organizational knowledge, new kinds of work, human judgment, and the choices involved in building systems that increase human capability rather than diminish it.
Questions explored
- What changes when artificial intelligence becomes an abundant resource rather than a scarce capability?
- What becomes valuable when information itself is no longer difficult to obtain?
- What happens when ordinary customers gain AI-assisted capabilities once reserved for purchasing departments, analysts, and large organizations?
- How does business change when evidence behind a claim becomes easier to find and evaluate?
- How might personal AI represent an individual rather than the commercial interests of a platform?
- What roles should identity, reasoning, specialized expertise, standards, and verification play in trustworthy AI systems?
- How should businesses preserve institutional knowledge and notice important changes sooner?
- What kinds of institutions and incentives could help AI strengthen human freedom, dignity, prosperity, trust, and flourishing?
Major ideas and frameworks
The Trust Economy
An economic and institutional environment in which AI lowers the cost of evaluating claims, evidence, and reputation, giving demonstrable trustworthiness greater economic value.
Verification
The book treats verification as labor with a cost. When AI can help reduce that cost, the balance between claims and evidence begins to change.
Personal Genie
A conceptual personal AI that represents one individual, assists with research and decisions, and operates within explicit authority and fiduciary boundaries while leaving ultimate authority with the person.
AIFIS, IRIS, and Smartware
A conceptual architecture separating a stable identity-and-integrity foundation, a replaceable reasoning layer, and modular specialized expertise.
Marketeaching
A business approach that helps customers understand a product’s evidence, tradeoffs, and limitations well enough to make a good decision instead of relying primarily on persuasion.
Attention System
An AI-enabled approach to continuous awareness: reviewing incoming information, identifying meaningful signals, prioritizing them, and routing them to the people who need to act.
2-2-2 Causal Reasoning Framework
A practical framework for exploring possibilities through Position & Capability, Convenience & Incentives, and reasoning backward and forward through Prequeling & Rippling.
AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO)
A method for investigating how AI systems discover, understand, evaluate, compare, and recommend a business or product, then improving the information and evidence those recommendations depend on.
For business readers
The book is written for leaders, managers, operators, entrepreneurs, technologists, and other readers trying to understand what widespread AI capability may change inside ordinary organizations. Its practical appendices cover capability and talent, causal reasoning, evidence readiness, attention systems, organizational knowledge, AI pilots, personal AI architecture, and AI visibility.
Structure
The book contains four parts and thirty chapters, followed by practical appendices. Part I reexamines information, trust, institutions, and stewardship. Part II develops the Personal Genie and a conceptual architecture for trustworthy personal AI. Part III follows the consequences into business, verification, marketing, reputation, standards, and organizational knowledge. Part IV considers human flourishing and the possibility of a second great renaissance.
Publisher note
This page is maintained by Ailefant Books as the publisher’s authoritative public description of The Trust Economy — A Second Great Renaissance. Publication identifiers, final edition details, purchase links, and related catalog information will be added when they are finalized.