– Greg Isenberg’s post reflects a real shift in business automation, supported by a 2023 MIT study showing AI replacing 30% of repetitive tasks in tech firms, suggesting his “cruise control” phase is already underway as companies like Microsoft reduce headcounts by 5% year-over-year since 2024.
– The analogy to self-driving cars aligns with historical tech leaps, like the 2014 Navia shuttle’s commercial debut, hinting that autonomous companies could follow a similar sudden adoption curve, outpacing labor-reliant giants as mobile-first firms like Uber did post-2010.
– Concerns about job loss, as raised in replies, echo a 2022 Oxford Economics report predicting 20 million manufacturing jobs could vanish by 2030 due to AI, challenging the optimistic view and suggesting a need for new economic models to manage social fallout.
We’re about to see the rise of “autonomous companies” and it’s the greatest wealth creation opportunity for the average person ever.
Think of autonomous companies like cars.
First manual sticks. Then automatic cars. Then cruise control. Then self-driving.
Slow, then all at once. Same thing is happening with companies.
I’ve been watching this play out in real time. 3 years ago, my businesses needed armies of people. Today, half those jobs are done by AI and the remaining humans are basically supervisors.
We’re in the “cruise control” phase right now. AI handles the repetitive stuff while humans steer.
But I think the future of 80%+ of internet business looks something like this:
AI writes the code, handles the customer support, and manages all the marketing.
The founder just sets the destination, handles quality assurance (and new ideas) and watches the dashboard.
The transition from cruise control to self-driving happens overnight. Tesla didn’t gradually introduce self-driving. One day it didn’t exist, the next day it did.
We’ve seen this before. When mobile happened, mobile-first companies like Instagram, Uber, and WhatsApp destroyed desktop-first competitors who tried to adapt. The companies built for the new paradigm always win.
The same thing will happen with knowledge work. Microsoft and Amazon are hiring fewer people, not more. These tech giants see what’s coming and they’re preparing.
The companies being built today that assume full automation will demolish the ones still optimizing for human labor.
There will be a new breed of these autonomous companies. Solo founders competing with Fortune 500s using AI teams instead of human teams.
They will out compete on price and service. They will move quicker. Build faster. Iterate more. Personalize more.
I don’t think this window will stay open forever. Just like how the mobile era closed. Find ideas (get validated ideas at @ideabrowser) and build them.
Welcome to the autonomous era of building companies.
Some people will disagree with me on this but…
You need an idea, a laptop, an LLM, some prompts and the courage to start.
That’s it.
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