RUNNING A BUSINESS WITH LLMS

My hypothesis going into this was that:

With the advent of AI and LLMs many things are changing about how money is made. Administration and clerical work goes away, which means the C-suite should be reshaped, as much of what they do is glorified clerical work from their background in law, MBAs, and finance. I always vote against board members that aren’t relevant to product excellence.

My partner made a more interesting statement:

I don’t believe a company’s board would vote out their peers even though CEOs are obsolete.

I thought https://fortune.com/2026/02/17/ai-productivity-paradox-ceo-study-robert-solow-information-technology-age/ was asking the wrong questions; to scale almost any system you try to do as much work at the edge (of the system) as possible. If they admit there is impact, they could be evaluated out of a job next. I thought https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/11/07/the-c-suite-is-becoming-obsolete-what-should-replace-it/ was far more relevant.

Arguments for the Position

• Clerical Automation: 93% faster processing and 86% cost reduction through AI workflow redesign prove the liability of traditional administrative CEO/CFO roles. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai
• Tech-Innovation Correlation: Technological knowledge in CEOs is the primary driver of product innovation. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2021.0553
• Board Entrenchment: The social network model facilitates zombie directors and plurality voting, which are leading indicators of business underperformance. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/09/09/governance-matters-dont-overlook-board-oversight/, https://www.glasslewis.com/article/how-plurality-voting-allows-directors-to-stay-on-the-board-without-majority-support
• Legal Accountability: New fiduciary standards for cognitive adequacy make technical relevance a legal necessity for management. https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/oblb/blog-post/2026/01/fiduciary-duties-and-business-judgment-rule-20-ai-act-age

Arguments against the Position

• Resource Dependence: Board member social networks provide critical access to information, trust, and capital that product experts may lack. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3223/322359389007/html/
• Risk Mitigation: Legal and financial backgrounds are essential for navigating the evolving liability landscape of AI-generated fraud and geopolitical trade shocks. https://www.klorconsulting.com/blog/ai-accountability-delaware-ruling, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/five-dynamics-that-will-test-ceos-in-2025
• Crisis Leadership: AI CEOs (and by extension, pure product boards) struggle with bold pivots required during unpredictable market failures. https://financialpost.com/technology/ai-new-boss-replace-ceo-falls-short

How I run my business

• Sales workflow: finding interesting contracts, filling out PDFs for submission, and submitting projects is done by a human
• Sales workflow: review whether something is win-able, risk/reward, and able to be sourced is completed by an LLM
• Fulfillment workflow: sourcing from sales is reviewed, payment done by a human
• Back office workflow: audit (Federal Acquisition Regulation), financial (balance sheet risks), and legal review (localized corporate law) completed by LLMs
• Network with other small business owner/operators who lean heavily into automation for additional resources

Conclusion

The most efficient business strategy is to vote against Busy directors and those on Zombie boards while retaining a subset of socially connected directors who provide the Resource Dependence network required to navigate tariffs and embargoes. Product excellence should be the board’s focus, but the clerical/legal network remains the firm’s armor in a litigious and volatile global market.