Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has not only given rise to a wave of mass layoffs and a slowdown in recruiting new employees. Increasingly sophisticated AI now makes it possible for anyone to set up a company completely alone without the help of employees.
This phenomenon is widespread in China. The emergence of ‘one-person companies’ which is powered by advanced AI tools, OpenClaw is increasingly becoming a highlight. A report from the Times of India said that 30-40% of Alibaba retailers in China have become sole entrepreneurs, meaning they don’t need the help of employees.
AI tools such as OpenClaw enable small-scale business people to carry out various upstream to downstream tasks with the help of AI, starting from customer service roles, product listings, to other technical matters.
Alibabacom President Kuo Zhang said the trend of ‘one-person companies’ was already clearly visible on e-commerce platforms. This also shows the major transformation in the job market created by OpenClaw.
In February, OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, spent billions of dollars to recruit Peter Steinberger, creator of the open-source AI agent OpenClaw.
Returning to Zhang’s testimony, in an interview with Business Insider, he said advanced AI agents have become a solution to eradicate the challenges faced by small business owners.
“Rather than employing humans, AI agents become employees for single entrepreneurs,” said Zhang, quoted from the Times of India, Thursday (2/4/2026).
For small businesses who don’t have employees, technical tasks such as adding products to several sites, managing social media accounts, and dealing with consumer complaints, can take time and energy.
These things may seem easy for large companies that have many employees. However, for small businesses whose cash flows are not yet large, adding employees will increase expenses.
AI agents like OpenClaw actually don’t just give rise to the ‘one-person companies’ phenomenon. Indeed, adoption has been fastest for this need in China.
However, OpenClaw is also widely used in more niche industries, for example for stock trading, and even creating matchmaking businesses to arrange blind dates. Many ‘one-person companies’ develop startups directly with the OpenClaw framework.
Zhang said the OpenClaw wave has helped other AI agents gain mainstream attention. Apart from that, OpenClaw also provides other applications such as JVS Claw which is designed to help users operate OpenClaw more easily.
According to Zhang, many users from the United States (US) are still unfamiliar with OpenClaw adoption compared to users in China.
Responding to the growth of single business people on its platform, Alibaba recently launched Accio Work, an AI agent built specifically for small business people. This tool can carry out daily e-commerce operations, including customer service, tax compliance, marketing, logistics, product registration, and recording reports.
“[Para pebisnis kecil] difficulties and need help with tax matters. Nowadays, AI is very easy to use. “AI is also easy to adopt and understand,” Zhang said.
According to Zhang, the Accio agent, which was launched at the end of 2024, currently has 10 million active users per month.
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