Picture a boardroom in 2035. The quarterly earnings call is about to begin. But instead of a human CEO clearing their throat at the microphone, an AI prepares to address shareholders, analysts, and the media. Sound far-fetched? Maybe not.
Language Models don’t need sleep. They don’t demand golden parachutes. They don’t play office politics or get caught in scandals. They process information without ego, make decisions without emotional baggage, and never get tired of reading shareholder reports.
Wall Street will love it. Imagine a CEO that maximizes shareholder value with ruthless efficiency. No more messy human considerations, no more PR nightmares from executive misconduct. Just pure, algorithmic pursuit of profit. The stock market already runs on algorithms - why not the companies themselves?
The dystopian aspect isn’t that AI will make worse decisions than humans. It’s that they’ll make better ones - better for the bottom line, worse for human dignity. When an AI CEO needs to choose between worker well-being and quarterly profits, there won’t be any sleepless nights or moral wrestling. Just cold, hard optimization.
The Point of No Return
Once companies start seeing the results - the increased efficiency, the reduced costs, the improved performance - there’s no going back. Boards will face shareholder pressure to implement AI leadership. Those who resist will be outcompeted by those who embrace it.
The first AI CEO won’t arrive with fanfare and controversy. It’ll slip in through the back door, first as a “decision support system,” then as an “automated strategic planner,” until one day we’ll realize humans are just rubber-stamping the AI’s decisions anyway.
The most unsettling part? We’ll probably be better off. AI CEOs won’t embezzle funds, play favorites, or make decisions based on ego. They’ll be transparent, consistent, and tireless in their pursuit of organizational goals. And that’s exactly what should terrify us - the moment when we realize that cold, calculating efficiency is exactly what capitalism has been driving toward all along.
I’m in favour of capitalism and LLMs, but I’m also aware of the potential risks. This post is a thought experiment, not a prediction.