Abstract
Markets are often treated as the primary arena of economic life and networks as the social infrastructure around them. That order is misleading. A price can allocate only after an offer, worker, firm, or idea has become visible enough to enter comparison. Networks therefore shape modern economies not merely by transmitting information or trust, but by defining the prior boundary of participation: who is searchable, recognisable, and connected to a possible buyer or employer. Digital platforms make this power explicit, while artificial intelligence makes it faster and less visible. AI can genuinely lower entry costs for people who lack language, training, or conventional credentials, and it can replace human contact in routine matching. Yet prediction also tends to reproduce the categories and histories from which it learns. The economic value of human connection will consequently decline in repetitive coordination but rise at the boundary where unfamiliar capabilities, exceptions, and cross-network opportunities require recognition. The central economic question is not whether markets will defeat networks, but who will control admission to the market that prices can see.
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