AI is creating a new class of entrepreneurs

How would you imagine a zero-human company? AI agents orchestrate other agents that use either groups of agents or specific tools to do their own specialized tasks. Is this possible today? There’s no doubt we’ll find out soon, but either way, the stage is set for it to happen.

AI has significantly reduced the time and resources needed to develop digital products. Entrepreneurs who fail to integrate AI into their operations risk obsolescence, as AI-powered competitors launch faster, optimize better, and deliver superior customer experiences. Despite this progress, the real opportunity lies in moving past AI as a mere productivity tool.

Today, the conversation around AI in business is still stuck in the era of superagencies, where humans use AI to boost productivity. While this is a step forward, it doesn’t go far enough. Entrepreneurs who want to stay ahead must think beyond AI as an assistant and start leveraging AI as the whole workforce itself–at least in industries where full automation is viable.

Yet, adopting AI as a workforce demands a cultural shift. Businesses must rethink long-standing assumptions about job roles and company structures, moving toward a model where AI-driven departments and functions can independently communicate, execute tasks, and learn in real time. This transition will challenge entrepreneurs to define new benchmarks for productivity and success. Consider performance metrics, for example, which will need to be reframed to focus more on how efficiently AI systems interact and cross-pollinate knowledge than on human-led oversight. Savvy entrepreneurs must become experts not only in technical integration but also in managing a new kind of organizational identity—one that depends less on employees and more on machine learning models sharing tasks and responsibilities..

To make this a reality, the question revolves around the role of entrepreneurs in the new, soon-to-be reality. Business owners develop, test, launch, and improve AI agents and tools. Not software products. This is the new economy–the new internet. It is not crowded by Software-as-a-Service companies, but Agent-as-a-Service, where the role of new entrepreneurs is to build agentic services that will eventually substitute software as we know it today.

What has slowed down zero-employee companies?

The concept of fully autonomous companies has long been possible in theory, but several barriers have slowed their emergence. First, the lack of inter-agent communication. While individual AI agents and tools could execute tasks, they couldn’t coordinate as a cohesive business team. Additionally, we lacked specialized agents that could operate in distinct roles, mirroring human workflows in areas like research, marketing, finance, and operations.

However, the biggest roadblock was the absence of a standardized payment infrastructure and authentication framework. When a user hires an agent, how does that agent pay for the tools or other agents it relies on? And how do those tools verify which user initiated the request?

One still-overlooked barrier is the current hesitation among traditional businesses to give AI agents decision-making autonomy. Even when the technical capability exists, organisations often struggle to relinquish control. This reluctance is usually driven by fear of reputational risk, data security concerns, and regulatory uncertainties—all issues that become more pronounced when machines act without human supervision. To overcome this, forward-thinking entrepreneurs will need to establish robust oversight protocols, ranging from ethical guidelines and transparent audit trails to fallback mechanisms for swift human intervention. These safeguards can help ease the transition and imbibe greater trust in the idea of AI running core operations.

Without a way to link authentication, identity, and payment execution, automation remains incomplete. While crypto may seem like the obvious direction, the real breakthrough isn’t in cryptocurrencies but in the cryptographic foundations that enable decentralized authentication, identity-linked transactions (with privacy preservation), and automated settlement mechanisms.

By utilizing decentralized identities, cryptographic verification, microtransaction frameworks, and programmable payments, companies can create the conditions for fully autonomous companies to emerge.

The truth is we’re still in the early stages of the underlying technology, not just of AI agents, but also of cryptocurrencies themselves. Adoption is limited to the in-the-know; ChatGPT, with its easy-to-use interface, retains 43% of the global market share, and workforces are still understanding how to integrate the technology effectively.

Adapt or be left behind

We’re seeing a major shift in the way people work. AI is adopting the roles of employees and taking over tasks that are data-intensive. The acceleration of automation has leveled the playing field, making it possible to build scalable companies with fewer resources and less human involvement. The next logical step is businesses that don’t just use AI but are AI. As this transformation unfolds, entrepreneurs must choose: adapt and harness AI as the workforce itself, or fall behind in a world where traditional business models become obsolete.

That said, the winds of change are both apparent and upon us, and it’s evident that the window of opportunity to transition to AI-driven business models is fast closing as a differentiator. Indeed, as competition tightens and consumer expectations evolve, leveraging AI for most businesses will be a precursor for remaining a going concern sooner rather than later. But will that be enough?

The boldest business entrepreneurs—and those most likely to succeed—will be those who proactively stake their future on AI as the architect of their organization—shaping operations, driving strategy, and in time, maybe even forging new markets. Standing still or waiting for the right time is a luxury that no modern business can afford.

The reality is that if you’re not actively integrating AI at every possible juncture, you risk not only getting left behind but potentially never catching up.