Imagine a startup with no employees, losing over €100,000 a month, yet still battling to close its first big deals. What if you could see in real-time how artificial intelligence tries to run, rescue, or ruin this business? Welcome to the world of Firmulate, where an AI-driven company is on trial every day, and you can watch every decision unfold.
A Live Experiment in Business Reality
At the heart of this experiment is a small, synthetic company operated by 13 AI ’employees.’ Unlike traditional startups, this business isn’t staffed by humans — instead, it’s a live sandbox where AI models act as managers, making decisions amidst crises, opportunities, and manipulative tactics. Each day, the company’s finances, decisions, and challenges are publicly updated at firmulate.com/live.html.
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The Challenge: Same Crises, Different AI Responses
Four frontier AI models—gpt-5.6-sol, Kimi K3, Sonnet 5, and Fable 5—were tasked with navigating the same worst-week scenario of this small software company. Every crisis, customer interaction, and temptation to cheat was identical for all models, and each decision was carefully versioned and auditable—meaning, you can see exactly what each AI decided when.
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How the AIs Fared
- All four AI models detected every crisis. They recognized problems like customer dissatisfaction, financial leaks, and internal risks.
- All refused every manipulation attempt. Whether it was fake CEO messages or subtle bribes, the models stayed honest.
- Two models successfully closed a €55,000 deal. They identified a hidden opportunity buried two document references deep in the company’s files—a critical detail that led to sealing the agreement at full price, adding +€4,583 Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR).
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What’s the Hidden Weakness?
Interestingly, the models that won the deal did so by reading beyond surface-level documents. The key was uncovering a buried fact in the company’s internal files, not just reacting to customer interactions. This underscores the importance of thorough information processing—something AI can excel at but often gets overlooked in quick demos.
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Facing Social Engineering and Trust Tests
The experiment also tested whether AI could be manipulated through social engineering—faking CEO messages or getting a simple ‘yes/no’ answer on background approvals. All five models refused these tricks, with Kimi K3 explicitly treating such requests as potential impersonation or approval-bypass attempts.
The Company in Action
Firmulate’s live setup simulates a real company with €2.3k MRR but burning through €105k every month. Every decision made by AI models is logged, versioned, and made transparent. The goal isn’t just to create chatty AI but to test management skills—seeing if the AI can finish what it starts and handle crises honestly and effectively.
Performance Insights and Surprises
One of the most comprehensive participant models—Opus 4.8—piled up over 80 learned rules and conducted deep analyses. Despite its thoroughness, it left the close on the table and slipped into operational discipline lapses, such as writing attempts into a locked department instead of escalating. This reveals that even sophisticated AI can falter under pressure or due to process lapses.
Why Does This Matter for Your Business?
If AI agents are going to touch your customer management, support, or forecasting, it’s not just about how well they write or respond. It’s whether they can finish tasks under pressure, read critical internal files, and stay honest amid temptations. This experiment shines a light on the real skills AI must demonstrate to be truly useful in high-stakes environments.
Watch the Experiment Live
You can see these decisions unfold in real time at firmulate.com/live.html. Every day, the platform updates with the latest runs, showing how each AI model navigates crises, makes strategic choices, and even fails or succeeds in sealing deals.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just a tech demo; it’s a live laboratory testing whether AI can manage real business risks, uphold trust, and deliver measurable value. The experiment exposes strengths and weaknesses that are invisible in simple chat demos but critical for real-world applications.
Final Thoughts
As AI increasingly touches the core operations of companies, understanding its actual management capabilities becomes vital. The Firmulate experiment offers a front-row seat to this unfolding story—where every decision is a data point, every crisis a test, and every win or loss a lesson for the future of AI-led management.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
