Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Rudall30 / Getty Images
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Rudall30 / Getty Images
Cloud Computing
Commerce Department
Crypto
An ad for AI company Artisan.Image Credits:Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Lattice organizational chart with Piper AI included.Image Credits:Lattice
fundraise
Gadgets
Gaming
Government & Policy
Hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
seclusion
Robotics
surety
societal
Space
inauguration
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
More from TechCrunch
event
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Thanks to the advent of cloud computing and deal digital infrastructure , theone - person micro - enterpriseis far from a fresh conception . Cheap on - demand compute , remote collaboration , payment processing APIs , societal media , and e - commerce marketplaces have all made it easier to “ go it alone ” as an enterpriser .
But what about scaling that one - person business into something meatier — an go-ahead ofunicornproportions ?
Historically , this would have been an unfathomably tough chore , due to the skills and resource expect not only to scale a product , but also to develop and wield a sufficiently bountiful client groundwork . ButAI agentscould unshackle the would - be solo - preneurs of the world .
AI agents are all about embedding human workflows into software package , free the homo to do more in less clock time . Agents can be assigned labor , and they can make decisions with varying degree of autonomy . Multiple AI agents could even collaborate on complementary tasks , pave the way for getting some real study done entirely autonomously .
In aninterviewlast year with Reddit carbon monoxide - founding father Alexis Ohanian , OpenAI ’s Sam Altman predicted this precise scenario .
“ In my little mathematical group natter with my technical school CEO friends , there ’s this betting pool for the first twelvemonth that there is a one - person billion - dollar company , ” Altman allege . “ Which would have been unimaginable without AI — and now [ it ] will bechance . ”
In a word at the World Economic Forum ’s annual coming together in Davos last week , a panel of entrepreneur and investor also discourse the prospect of the single - person billion - dollar enterprise — and , more significantly , what this might stand for for the future of employment .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
In humans we trust
late chronicle discover a pot of svelte billion - dollar companies . Microsoft doled out$2.5 billion for Minecraft makerMojang , which had a reported40 employees . Facebookacquired WhatsApp for $ 19 billionwhen the messaging app maker had just55 employees . Two years before that , Facebookbought Instagram for $ 1 billionwith just13 employeesin its membership .
This proves that net technology has already generated immense companies with minimum headcount . But this is n’t the same as a one - person unicorn .
Kanjun Qiu , CEO of AI inquiry labImbue , which isbuilding agent capableof logical thinking and cryptography , reckons that the variety of one - soul businesses that AI will most in all probability help hit the big time are those where the product is largely ego - serve .
“ I think the places where it ’ll be easiest , and first , are ‘ can up ’ — either consumer or prosumer — ware that do n’t require large go - to - market teams , ” Qiu explained during the dialog box discussion . “ I call back go - to - market is actually one of the place where it ’s going to be difficult to automate all of these relationship with other people . ”
When it comes to generating sales , it ’s not always the better merchandise that wins out ; it ’s the people behind the product that have done a better job of build trust with customers . So if you need to proactively trade your product , you still might need to staff up .
“ That homo - to - human trust , I recall , is still very necessary and very significant , ” Qiu add .
Benjamine Liu , chief executive officer ofAI drug development fellowship Formation Bio , is bullish on the grow use that AI is having in his company and beyond .
“ I intend we ’re living in one of the most exciting areas to be building companies , ” Liu said at Davos . “ We have PhD - point intelligence information in our pocket , and we ’re set about to see AI systems do the work of entire team . I think in that world , AI - aboriginal company have a middling pregnant reward . ”
However , Liu echoed Qiu ’s sentiments : Though the potential for one - person mega - businesses is real , it might not actually make sense from a line of work or entrepreneurial perspective — and it all come down to the human experimental condition that measure relationships .
“ The potency to get there is earlier than citizenry think , ” Liu say . “ My view is that it ’s gon na take a long time , because being an enterpriser is kind of a lone journeying , and you desire a Colorado - beginner . caller are still started by world . I think you will want some multitude to share the journey with . ”
So the reality is , we might really terminate up in a place where companies have always embark on out : a founding team with completing skill sets . But rather than scaling through incremental hiring , they preserve that initial thinness with AI agents plugging the gap .
But even if the fabled one - person unicorn never happens , there ’s piddling question that the oncoming agentic AI freight train will disrupt the workforce in a with child path .
“The era of AI employees”
If this still all seems suppositious , think again . Agentic AI is already entering the workforce in the form oflawyers like Harveyor software package engineers such asCognition ’s Devin .
AI gross revenue agentsare also booming , withVC - backedcompanies such as Artisanboasting that it want to replace the human workforce — as its dystopian billboard advert in San Francisco demonstrates .
Plenty of other companies are also laying the origination for agentic AI to flourish .
Lattice , an HR and “ people management ” platformlast assess at $ 3 billion , is going further by giving “ digital workers”official employee records , meaning that its customer ’ AI agents actually show up in the organizational chart , full with visibility photo and a handler assign to them .
Sarah Franklin , who joined Lattice as CEOlast yr , called this transition a “ majuscule fresh years of quislingism , ” where humans and AI broker work side by side . And what this mean is managing these agentive role in a standardized style to humans , to foster transparency and accountability .
“ We desire to prioritise the succeeder of citizenry as the primary election , and when you ’re working with AI agents , it ’s authoritative to empathize what they are assigned to be doing , ” Franklin explain at Davos . “ It ’s not saying that AI is human ; it ’s more that we postulate to clearly identify where AI is . As AI speaks on behalf of brands and people , makes decisions on behalf of trade name and people , and integrates with other scheme , we want to be able to tail that . ”
But if companies can operate at shell without any significant human manpower , what does this mean for society ? masses require to earn money ; they need purpose — would n’t society just implode on itself if people are n’t able to work ?
As with premature industrial gyration , acommon refrain around the AI revolutionis that young job will work up in the farsighted terminus — we just do n’t acknowledge what they are yet .
“ There ’s going to be a band of job creation , too,”Mitchell Green , founder of investment house Lead Edge Capital , read at Davos . “ If you recollect about when the iPhone came out in 2007 — Uber and Airbnb are now $ 100 billion companies . [ They ] could not have existed before this . Where the chance can be are the companies that we ’re not even suppose about yet — they are going to be these next elephantine byplay . ”
That does n’t mean there wo n’t be a whole heap of pain in the short term , though . And as we ’re already seeing withChinese AI sensation DeepSeek , the charge per unit of AI ’s advance is significant in terms of price - to - execution proportion of AI models . And this could be a key discriminator versus previous industrial and technological revolutions : We might not be able to conform promptly enough .
“ I do think there ’s a mickle to talk about in terms of retraining and upskilling , ” Liu said . “ But there ’s something quite unique about the tempo of maturation and how chop-chop these mannikin are receive good , specifically where we ’re pick up these AI scheme do the work of full teams . ”
“Manager of AIs”
There was a general consensus among the panel that no matter of the rate of alteration , everyone will have to learn not only to survive with AI , but also get a line how to use it to thrive in the workplace .
WithYou.com , for example , companies can access its API to bring actual - time web search to any large language good example ( LLM ) . While it offers its own suite of agents for specific job , companiescan also createtheir owncustom agents , choose their preferred AI model and giving it instructions base on whatever sources of data they demand to get in touch .
“ We , as CEOs , are going to be the first contemporaries that manage mass and AI , ” You.com CEORichardSochersaid at Davos . “ But I think the most interesting change here is actually that every case-by-case contributor , every employee , is hold out to become a coach of AIs . And in that sense , everyone is going to become kind of an entrepreneur . ”
So the jury is still very much out on whether we ’ll ever see a reliable one - someone unicorn society . However , the rationale behind the persuasion has already kind of been testify , as we ’ve seen with the insanely high value - to - head count ratio of WhatsApp , which worked out at $ 345 million for each employee at the clock time Facebook buy it .
Even Nvidia , with a market jacket crown ofmore than $ 3 trillion , has a comparatively slender workforce of few than30,000 employees — that ’s the equivalent of around $ 100 million in economic value per employee .
With the right type of party , and the right execution , it ’s difficult to see how AI wo n’t nudge these dollar sign figures north as the head count heads south . But in all likeliness , it will just make out down to whether there is a desire for one person to build alone , with enough entrepreneurial knowledge to engraft a strong , defendable business model that someone else ca n’t just replicate at the cliff of a hat .
But whether companionship will be ready to handle this is an entirely different doubt .
