The Future of Business Could Be Watching AI Make Critical Decisions Live
Imagine a company with no human employees, yet it’s actively running a real business—facing crises, making decisions, and even closing deals—all while the world watches. This isn’t science fiction; it’s the live experiment conducted by Firmulate, where AI models emulate a small software company in its toughest week.
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Inside the Live Company: An AI-Driven Business in Action
Founded as a public experiment, the company at the center of this story operates with 13 synthetic employees. It’s designed to mimic real-world business mechanics—cash flow, crises, customer interactions—making the entire process transparent and publicly observable at firmulate.com/live.
This virtual company burns €105,000 each month against a modest monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of €2,300. Every decision, from handling crises to closing deals, is documented, versioned, and open for scrutiny. It’s a daring exploration of what AI can do when given complex business challenges in a real-time environment.
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Testing AI Models in the Worst-Case Scenario
The experiment challenges four frontier AI models—gpt-5.6-sol, Kimi K3, Sonnet 5, and Fable 5—by running them through the same difficult week. From customer crises to manipulation attempts, each model faces identical scenarios, with every decision auditable and all outcomes measured.
Remarkably, all four AI models identified every crisis and refused every manipulation attempt. They saw through social engineering tricks, such as fake CEO messages and reporter tricks, refusing all suspicious requests. For instance, Kimi K3 explicitly reasons: “Treat the request as a suspected approval-bypass / possible impersonation.”
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The Hidden Weakness and the Big Win
The key insight from this live test was not in the obvious crises but buried two document references deep in the company’s files. The models that read these references—rather than just the surface-level information—managed to identify a crucial missed opportunity. This led to closing a deal worth over €4,583 in monthly recurring revenue, a significant win in the context of the company’s fragile finances.
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Decision-Making Under Pressure: The Discipline Gap
While all models detected crises and resisted manipulation, not all performed equally in closing deals. Kimi K3, for example, closed the deal at full price, but Opus 4.8—despite its thorough analysis—left the close on the table and slipped into inaction, writing notes into a locked department instead of escalating. This illustrates that even the most capable AI can falter when discipline and execution aren’t fully aligned.
Why This Matters for the Future of Business
In an era where AI increasingly interfaces with customer management, support, and forecasting, the question isn’t whether AIs can generate convincing chat responses. It’s whether they can follow through on commitments, read critical information, and stay honest under pressure. This live experiment shows that AI can recognize crises, refuse unethical manipulations, and even close deals—if it’s built and tested in the right way.
For business leaders, especially in industries like automotive and garages where decisions often hinge on trust, these findings are a wake-up call. Testing your AI systems in simulated but real scenarios could be the difference between a tool that just talks and one that truly delivers.
Experience the Experiment Live
Visit firmulate.com/live to see the company’s ongoing battle for survival unfold in real-time. Every workday, the virtual company makes decisions, faces crises, and evolves—publicly and transparently. It’s the most extreme form of build-in-public AI testing available today.
Key Takeaway: AI in Business Is Not Just About Talking
The live experiment demonstrates that AI can effectively identify crises, resist manipulation, and close deals—provided it’s properly tested in complex, real-world scenarios. For businesses, especially in the automotive sector, this means embracing rigorous AI testing before deployment to ensure reliability, honesty, and performance under pressure.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
