Imagine an interior design firm with no employees, profiting only a few euros a month, yet constantly battling to keep its doors open. Now, imagine you could watch this company in real time, day after day, as AI models make decisions, face crises, and attempt to close deals. Welcome to the world of Firmulate, where a live experiment turns the concept of a startup inside out, revealing what it truly takes to run a business—and whether AI can do it.
The Unique Experiment: Running a Company in the Open
Firmulate’s latest project is unlike any traditional business story. It’s a live, transparent experiment involving a simulated company with 13 synthetic employees, but with real money mechanics. Every workday, this virtual enterprise faces the same crises, customer interactions, and temptations that real-world companies encounter. The twist? Its decision-making AI models are tested in real time, with their choices versioned and auditable for analysis.
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The AI Models Under Scrutiny
Four frontier AI models, each with different strengths and training regimes, were tasked with managing this digital business during its worst week. Their goal? To diagnose crises, make sales, and close a key €55,000 deal. The results are startling:
- All four models identified every crisis, demonstrating strong situational awareness.
- All refused manipulation attempts, including social engineering scams like fake CEO messages and reporter tricks, showcasing integrity under pressure.
- Only two models successfully closed the deal—those that did their homework, read critical internal files, and followed through on their diagnosis.
Interestingly, the decisive factor wasn’t just surface-level decision-making. It was the models’ ability to uncover a buried document reference in the company’s files—information vital to sealing the deal at full price (+€4,583 MRR). The models that read and understood this file won the sale while others fell short, leaving money on the table.
The Reality of a Living Business
The experiment is hosted on Firmulate’s live site, where visitors can observe the company’s daily struggles—burning €105,000 each month against a mere €2,300 monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Every decision and crisis is recorded, versioned, and explained. This transparency reveals how AI models handle real-world challenges: they spot problems, refuse to bend under social pressure, and sometimes fail to follow through on promising opportunities.
Lessons for Business and AI
For those in interior design and furniture sectors, the takeaway is clear: the true test of AI’s usefulness isn’t just its ability to generate convincing chat or marketing copy. It’s whether it can finish what it starts, interpret complex internal data, and stay honest when the stakes are high.
In the experiment, the most disciplined model—Kimi K3—ran without an effort parameter (default settings) and maintained a high score of 93 out of 100, securing the deal. The most thorough participant, Opus 4.8, analyzed more deeply but left some opportunities unexploited, hinting that in business, thoroughness must be balanced with decisiveness. Meanwhile, the company itself is a stark reminder: a business with no employees, burning through cash daily, still fights to make a profit. Its live status underscores how fragile and complex real-world operations remain—even with AI involved.
What This Means for Your Business
If AI agents are to support your CRM, support queues, or forecasting, the question isn’t just about how well they chat. It’s whether they can truly see beyond surface details, avoid shortcuts, and complete the work they’re assigned. The experiment at Firmulate vividly shows that only those models capable of rigorous internal analysis and resisting social engineering could deliver consistent results.
Watching an AI-managed company in real time reveals the true challenge: can AI finish what it starts, interpret hidden data, and stay honest under pressure? The Firmulate experiment exposes the pitfalls—and potential—of AI in business operations, offering insights for sectors like interior design and furniture where trust and execution matter most.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
