In the AI era, ‘how’ fades and ‘why’ takes center stage

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In the AI era, ‘how’ fades and ‘why’ takes center stage

Published: 12 Feb. 2026, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Lee Soo-hwa

The author is a research professor of Big Data Innovation Convergence College at Seoul National University and head of AI Center at DLG Law Firm.

Global financial markets witnessed an unprecedented shock on Feb. 3, described by some as a “SaaS-pocalypse,” or the collapse of the software-as-a-service model.

Just three weeks after Anthropic unveiled its AI agent service Claude CoWork, the combined market value of global software companies fell by $285 billion. The decline reflected growing concern that AI had entered a stage where it could replicate and operate other AI systems, undermining pricing models based on the number of human users.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the Code with Claude developer conference on Thursday, May 22, 2025 in San Francisco. [AP/YONHAP]

CoWork represents the arrival of autonomous agents that can access user systems, read and modify files and execute tasks. AI is no longer a support tool but an operational actor capable of judgment and action.

The impact was most visible in the legal sector. Shares of Thomson Reuters fell 15.83 percent in a single day while LegalZoom dropped 19.7 percent, signaling a structural shift in knowledge-based industries.

Traditional legal technology focused on the “how,” such as in case searches or document editing. CoWork-based legal plug-ins, however, have pushed the value of routine legal labor close to zero. By providing open-source rule files in formats such as JSON or Markdown, AI agents can automate more than 90 percent of junior lawyers’ tasks almost instantly.

Even a simple update of a company’s legal playbook allows AI to review contracts, flag risky clauses using a traffic light system and propose specific revisions with practical alternatives.

AI is now both a platform reshaping industries and a solutions provider. What remains as a human competitive advantage is originality and philosophy. This idea is similar to the concept behind the Netflix series "Culinary Class Wars" (2024-), a creative cooking competition where success depends not only on technique but also on each chef’s philosophy and creative vision. AI can generate the optimal recipe, but the reason for creating a dish and the values it conveys come from the chef’s worldview.

In the future, law firms will need to sell not precise wording but a vision of justice. When legal strategy begins with the question, “What does this ruling leave for our society?” AI becomes an engine that implements that philosophy.

Organizations focused only on execution risk falling behind. Those that provide judgment, trust and value will endure. In this period of disruption, the winners will be those who design strategy, purpose and meaning.

History offers a parallel. In 1638, Crown Prince Sohyeon of Joseon (1612–1645) reflected on why a new civilization was needed when his country was preoccupied with neo-Confucian formalities. Today, society needs leaders who, like him, ask why before how.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.