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 C-suite admits there is impact, C-suite 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, and submitting projects is done by a human
• Sales workflow: review whether something is win-able, risk/reward, filling out PDFs for submission, 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.