The first stage was boomer PMs pattern-recognizing CHGG being disrupted across other sectors post Claude Code
The second stage is CEOs pattern-recognizing AI-adoption within their employee-base vs prior cycles of cloud eating on-prem or excel eating graph paper
The third stage is CFOs pattern-recognizing AI agents as analogous to outsourcing labor to China or India
The fourth stage is exec boards watching a new vertical like accounting get torched overnight and running the pattern-rec on to their own sector and panicking.
Claude Code was easy to dismiss. Verifiable rewards. Domain expertise of the labs. Fully digital.
When the model capability broadens you get tipping points and the second tipping point marks a pattern.
Human psychology isnt rocket science.