The year is 2028 you are the CEO of a 5-person startup with a $20M turnover run by ChatGPT 7

What will this new world be like? I can't avoid speculating that huge change is coming.

We are all just monkeys in clothes. Imagined using Midjourney.

Hey folks, in this week’s newsletter, I want to share a little thought experiment about what the year 2028 might look like from the perspective of a small business owner running a business using the latest advances in AI.

I’ve tried to base my projections on what I consider to be “achievable” AI business capabilities, rather than out-of-control-autonomous-Terminator-bots that the media loves to write about, and which I personally think are unlikely for the foreseeable future (outside of a military setting, at least).

So, let’s call our fictional company Widget Co. (no relation to any real company) and see where we go. Widget Co. performs some business functions, it doesn’t really matter about the specifics, it can be whatever you want it to be.

In the second part of the newsletter, I discuss how and why I came to some of the conclusions in the 2028 scenario, and provide evidence to support my claims.

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It’s May 10th, 2028

As the owner of Widget Co., you recently purchased Microsoft’s latest,

“Business in a Box - Your Complete Copilot for Business Administration”

Subscription for $250/month.

The package is marketed as a complete business administration solution for small business owners, trained on datasets from the top business universities, professors, entrepreneurs and MBA course material from around the world.

It contains several fine-tuned AI bots designed to undertake the following cookie-cutter business admin work:

Legal Counsel (LC) bot

Is a legal expert in the law of over 180 countries and territories. It scored a near-perfect pass on the Bar exam of every country it is qualified for.

It can advise on legal issues, write and negotiate contracts (employment, commercial, property, etc.) and store them permanently on the Ethereum blockchain for future reference.

LC bot also keeps track of any potential contractual infringements by counterparties and flags them to the Supervisor bot (see below) in real time.

Human Resources (HR) bot

Is highly empathetic and is trained in the human resources functions and employment law of over 90 countries. It can be used to inform new recruits about the company’s goals and values (both human and AI recruits) and manages the payroll, holidays and provides a dispute resolution service.

HR bot also includes a free staff “health and well-being” medical advice bot to help keep the (few remaining) humans in the workforce happy and healthy.

This latter bot is ranked in the top 99.98% of all GPs in terms of diagnostic capability and multiple times higher in terms of patient empathy, as time is not a constraint when discussing an employee’s health complaints.

HR bot works closely with the Legal Counsel bot to draft new employment contracts and resolve any legal disputes which may occur between employees and the company.

Accountant bot

Deals with creating and filing company accounts and mainlines directly into your bank and e-commerce systems to get real-time financial and market data.

It is able to prepare cashflow predictions and management accounts, models and projects P&L, automatically applies for government grant aid when available, and continuously applies financial strategies to increase profitability and reduce expenses in line with your company’s corporate goals and values.

It also automatically saves and files taxes on time and works with digital “AI lenders” to obtain short-term lending to cover any cashflow shortfalls.

Supervisor bot

Is the “corporate brain” of Widget Co., based on the groundbreaking ChatGPT 7. It is used as a general-purpose AI for creative tasks and undertaking overall company oversight and management.

Considered to be 99.98% AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) by experts and with a minimum verified IQ of over 220, putting it at the very top end of the most intelligent humans that have ever existed, in all subjects.

As general-purpose AI, it’s also multimodal, meaning it can write, speak, see and hear as well as, but usually much better than a human, and is part-embodied through a small device worn on the wrist of the CEO and other devices conveniently located around the office and home.