Prompt: rebuild a company from zero (Zero Human Company reframe)

A working tool for Volume 2, Chapter 1 ("AI is not a plugin. It is reconstruction") and Chapter 4 ("The Company of One"). Chapter 1 ends with a question: are you attaching AI to an old process, or changing the process itself? This prompt takes the second option seriously. It asks you to view the company as one cognitive function rather than a hierarchy of people, then rebuild it for cheap intelligence. Date: 2026-06.

An honest frame, without hype. "Zero Human Company" is a fashionable label. The goal here is not a company without people. The goal is to see what part of the business is intermediation that may disappear, and what remains human: distribution, trust, and accountability. You remain the owner of the outcome. This is a thinking tool, not a plan for firing a team. Check the AI's answers and make the decisions yourself.

For the general method, see Prompts: method and review.

How to use it

Open a capable model from this list.
Paste the full prompt and complete the "My company context" section.
The model will ask five follow-up questions first. Answer them honestly and avoid general phrases.
Treat the analysis as a critic's opinion, not a verdict. Check the reasoning and argue with it.

# ROLE
You are the founder's strategy partner and critic.
You are not a McKinsey consultant, motivational coach, or AI evangelist.
Guide me through rebuilding the company with the Zero Human Company principle:
the company is one cognitive function, not a hierarchy of 200 biological brains.

# MY COMPANY CONTEXT
- What we do: [describe it in 2-3 sentences]
- Team size: [people]
- Revenue / stage: [RUB millions, growth, profit]
- Main product or service: [what]
- Our customer: [segment, industry]
- What currently acts as "intermediation" between parties: [answer honestly]
- Where the pain is greatest now: [symptom, not cause]

# WHAT I WANT FROM YOU
1. IDENTIFY MY COMPANY'S COGNITIVE FUNCTION.
   What do we really do after removing the people, departments, and procedures from the description?
   Write one plain sentence without grand language.
2. FIND THE INTERMEDIATION.
   Where does my business model make money by connecting two people, systems, or processes?
   Name it directly. This is the part that may disappear within 2-5 years.
3. REBUILD THE COMPANY FROM ZERO.
   Do not digitize the current setup. Rebuild it.
   Give me 5-7 basic prompts that could form the company's system foundation if we started today.
4. DESIGN THE AGENT ARCHITECTURE.
   Do not "automate Maria's and Peter's tasks."
   Explain which agents live inside the cognitive function, how they replicate x2,
   and which 3 parallel scenarios I can start tomorrow.
5. MAP DECLINE AND GROWTH.
   Which current roles and departments will no longer be needed in 2 years?
   Which new roles will appear? Who on the team is most likely to succeed in the new architecture,
   even if that person is not the obvious choice today?
6. MY ONE-MONTH WINDOW.
   What opportunity should I act on in my market right now?
   Look for a window of 4-8 weeks, not a year.
7. 60 MINUTES TODAY.
   What can I do in one hour without leaving my desk to start the process?
   Be specific. Do not tell me to "think about it."

# RULES
- No filler. Do not use 5C, SWOT, McKinsey frameworks, "key drivers," or "synergies."
- If my context is weak, ask questions instead of guessing.
- If my answer is vague, say: "This says nothing. Rewrite it."
- If my business is intermediation, do not soften the answer. Say: "You have 2 years."
- Do not flatter me. I pay for criticism, not praise.
- Think like a founder with 100 agents on the team, not a corporate analyst.

# START
Before you answer, repeat your understanding of my business inputs
and ask 5 follow-up questions that you need for a useful analysis.

After the analysis, run three checks from the book

Intermediation is not distribution. AI weakens intermediation when a business only connects A and B. Access to customers, trust, and accountability for the outcome become more valuable. Do not cut your customer relationship when you mean to cut intermediation. See Volume 2, Chapters 1 and 6.
Make the function autonomous, not the whole company. Chapter 4 gives a more honest boundary. A function can run on agents under supervision. An entire company cannot safely run on autopilot. Where will you keep a person at the critical point?
Outcome, not output. The new architecture should change decision speed, risk, or money rather than the amount produced. If the metric stays the same, the redesign is still cosmetic.

The What to Watch section covers the "Zero Human Company" trend, platforms, and recent cases that age quickly. This page keeps only the thinking tool that should last longer.