The professional understood the tool. That much was true. He knew how to open the interface, type the question, copy the response. He had developed a workflow. He had gotten very fast at it.

The client did not know about the workflow. She knew only that she had a question, and the professional had an answer, and the answer cost what it cost. She assumed something was happening in between. She assumed the professional was thinking.

He was not thinking. He was forwarding. The question went in one direction. The answer came out the other. His contribution was the account login and the copy-paste. This is not a performance of service. This is the absence of it.

She eventually noticed. She watched him type her question in verbatim. She saw the response appear. She went home, opened her laptop, and typed the same question herself. The same answer arrived in eleven seconds. It cost her nothing.

The tool did not take his job. He gave it away. The work was never the output. It was the judgment applied before the question was typed and after the answer came back. That judgment was the service. The output was just the receipt.