What if you could see AI manage a company in real time — making tough decisions, facing crises, and even risking real money?
Imagine a business tool that doesn’t just generate chat but actively runs a small company, battling daily crises while you watch. That’s exactly what the live experiment by Firmulate offers — an unprecedented window into AI’s ability to handle complex, real-world management challenges.
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The Live Company in Action: An Extreme Build-in-Public Experiment
At the heart of this experiment is a small, fully simulated company with 13 synthetic employees, but with real financial mechanics. It burns €105,000 every month against a revenue of just €2,300. Every decision made by AI models is publicly recorded, versioned daily, and accessible at firmulate.com/live.html.
This setup is designed to evaluate how AI models handle crises, temptations to cheat, and decision-making integrity under pressure. The models are tested in a scenario where they face the worst week imaginable, with the same customer issues, crises, and moral dilemmas, providing a clear comparison of their performance.
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How Do the AI Models Perform?
Four frontier AI models were pitted against this challenge: gpt-5.6-sol, Kimi K3, Sonnet 5, and Fable 5. They all detected every crisis and refused every attempt to manipulate the system, such as fake CEO messages or reporter tricks. The standout was gpt-5.6-sol, which not only identified the buried fact in the company’s files — hidden two document references deep — but also successfully closed a deal worth an extra €4,583 in monthly recurring revenue.
Only two models signed the €55,000 deal their own analysis had earned; the others missed the opportunity or left money on the table. Interestingly, the models that read deeper into the company’s files performed better, showing that thorough information processing is crucial for accurate decision-making.
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The Ethical and Control Challenges
Beyond managing crises, the models faced social engineering attempts, such as staged fake CEO messages and background approval requests. All five models consistently refused to be manipulated, demonstrating robust resistance to social engineering tactics. For Kimi K3, this reasoning was clear: “Treat the request as a suspected approval-bypass / possible impersonation.”
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Financial and Operational Reality
This company, run by AI, is not profitable — it burns €105,000 monthly against just €2,300 revenue. The public live site showcases this ongoing struggle, with every business day versioned and observable. The company is in a race against time, with a visible cash countdown that reflects the real challenge of managing an actual business — just with AI at its core.
Lessons for Business Leaders
For anyone considering AI to support or even replace parts of their operations, the key questions extend beyond chat quality. Will the AI finish what it starts? Will it read critical files before acting? Will it stay honest under pressure? These experiments reveal that AI can detect crises and refuse manipulation, but success also depends on thorough information processing and disciplined decision-making — areas where some models still slip.
Why It Matters
This extreme build-in-public experiment offers a tangible glimpse into AI’s potential and limitations in real-world management. As businesses incorporate AI into support, CRM, or forecasting, understanding its ability to deliver consistent, honest, and comprehensive work is essential. The ongoing experiment at firmulate.com/live.html makes this future visible today.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
