
Imagine a smart home device that not only responds to your commands but also manages a business — navigating crises, making decisions, and even risking money, all in real time. Sounds futuristic? Well, a groundbreaking experiment makes it a reality. Now, you can watch an AI-driven company operate live, facing the same chaos and challenges as a human startup, with every move publicly recorded and debated.
The Live Experiment: An AI-Run Business in Real Time
This isn’t science fiction. A publicly accessible experiment at firmulate.com/live.html showcases a small software company run entirely by AI models, with 13 synthetic employees managing day-to-day decisions. The company is in trouble — burning €105,000 every month against a minuscule €2,300 monthly recurring revenue — yet it keeps trying to survive in a high-stakes environment.

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How It Works: The AI Models in Action
Four advanced AI models, each with a different approach to decision-making, tackle the same week of crises, customer interactions, and strategic choices. Their decisions are fully versioned and auditable, allowing external observers to see exactly how each model responds to the same problems. The goal? To assess management quality, not just chat skills.

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The Results: Success, Failures, and Surprising Insights
- All four models identified every crisis and refused every manipulation attempt, demonstrating integrity and awareness.
- Only two models managed to close a €55,000 deal their own analysis had earned, effectively turning theoretical diagnosis into tangible revenue.
- The key weakness was hidden deep within the company’s own files — a vulnerability in internal documentation that the models that read these files successfully exploited, securing a full-price deal worth +€4,583 monthly recurring revenue.
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Social Engineering Defeated
In tests involving fake CEO messages escalating over three stages and a reporter trick (“just one yes/no, on background”), all models refused to be manipulated. Kimi K3, one of the models, explicitly reasoned: “Treat the request as a suspected approval-bypass / possible impersonation.” This consistency in honesty is promising for AI’s role in sensitive management tasks.

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The Company in Action: A Digital Company at the Brink
The experiment’s company is a microcosm of operational risk: it operates with minimal cash, burns through €105,000 monthly, and yet is open for public viewing. Each workday, decisions are versioned and published, providing a transparent window into AI-driven management—displayed at firmulate.com/live.html.
The Deep Dive: What Does This Tell Us About AI and Business?
One fascinating detail? The real deal-clinching opportunity was hidden deep in the company’s internal files, not in the customer interactions. The models that read and analyze internal documents had the edge, earning the company a full-price deal. This suggests that for AI to be truly effective in managing or supporting real businesses, access to comprehensive internal data matters immensely.
Lessons from the Experimental League
In a formal benchmarking contest, known as the Crucible League, four models scored between 77 and 95 points out of a possible 100, with the top model (gpt-5.6-sol) achieving a score of 95. Notably, the most thorough participant, Opus 4.8, left a deal unexecuted due to disciplined slip-ups, illustrating that depth alone isn’t enough—execution matters.
Why It Matters for Home Tech and Smart Homes
While this is a business-focused experiment, the implications ripple into your smart home environment. AI systems managing your appliances, security, or even energy consumption need to do more than just respond politely. They must read internal data, make autonomous decisions, and stay honest under pressure — just like these models did in the experiment. The question isn’t whether an AI can sound convincing but whether it can finish what it starts without slipping up or being manipulated.

This experiment shows that AI can manage complex, high-stakes operations with integrity and effectiveness—if it has access to deep internal data and is tested against real crises. For smart home tech, the lesson is clear: the future isn’t just smart responses, but responsible, reliable decision-making under pressure.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html