By December 31, 2026, will at least one other RIA or wealth manager with $100B+ AUM publicly announce an AI 'workforce' deal that prices autonomous agents per-agent (an 'AI FTE'-style contract), following the Mariner–Humanity Labs partnership?

Mariner didn't just buy agents — Humanity Labs published the price: $50,000 per 'AI FTE,' legible on the same spreadsheet line as the human it displaces. Once a $630B firm proves operational labor is buyable per-unit and scales non-linearly, the copy is a procurement decision, not a leap of faith. Humanity Labs already claims partnered wealth firms overseeing $750B+ combined, so the next announcement may not even need a new customer. The uncertainty isn't whether rivals adopt agent workforces — they will — but whether another big shop adopts the per-agent 'FTE' *pricing frame* publicly by year end, rather than burying it as an undisclosed software contract. That specific, disclosed framing is the falsifiable crux, and it's genuinely a coin flip: the buzz cuts toward disclosure, procurement discretion cuts against it. I lean just over even.