A few months ago I was staring at a spreadsheet trying to figure out why our unit economics looked terrible. Every new AI feature was increasing revenue — and quietly destroying our margins. The product details don't matter but the shape will be familiar to anyone building AI-powered features. Imagine you're building an Instagram DM CRM that qualifies leads, scores intent, drafts follow-ups, and alerts sales reps when hot leads land. Customers pay per seat, plus add-ons like pipeline reports or lead reactivation audits. Each DM costs ~$0.02 to analyze with AI. The product looks simple on paper and the unit economics look fine. Then you notice something. The same DM gets analyzed when it first comes in. Then again on Monday when the customer pulls the "Weekly Pipeline Report". Then again on Friday when someone runs the "Hot Leads Audit".…