Can you earn up to 20 million yuan a year? The "one-person company" spawned by AI is booming. Can everyone do it?

“After using AI (Artificial Intelligence), I finally had the ability to bring the ideas in my mind to life for the first time.” Tata told a reporter from NBD (National Business Daily).

As a self - media entrepreneur, Tata couldn't find a job for a while after leaving her previous company. During her unemployment, she became a mother and happened to catch up with the AI era. She transformed from a former UI designer into an independent income - generating blogger sharing practical knowledge.

Currently, entrepreneurs like Tata are not in the minority. Since last year, they have had a unified name: OPC (One - Person Company).

In 2026, the explosive growth of AI applications like OpenClaw directly drove the OPC entrepreneurship wave.

Recently, through multiple interviews, NBD reporters also found that OPC entrepreneurs, who start with just one person and one computer like Tata, are emerging rapidly. They don't have a technical background, but in the AI era, as the technical threshold is gradually leveled, cross - industry entrepreneurship has become the norm, and the original patterns of different industries are being reshaped.

In fact, the concept of OPC more often refers to one or two core entrepreneurs leading a small team and leveraging AI tools for entrepreneurship. When technology no longer poses a threshold and the cost of entrepreneurship continues to decrease, will OPC become the mainstream entrepreneurship form in the future? Is everyone suitable for entering the OPC field, and how can potential risks be predicted and avoided?

AI Lowers the Threshold of Entrepreneurship Ability: Cross - Industry Entrepreneurship by Ordinary People in OPC Becomes the Norm

Chai Daixuan, the managing director of CIC Consulting, told NBD reporters that the OPC widely discussed nowadays is more of a new entrepreneurship model catalyzed by artificial intelligence technology. Its core is no longer limited to “a single shareholder” but has evolved into a new form of “1 + N”.

Here, “1” refers to one core founder who leads the company's strategic decisions, creative directions, and controls the overall development rhythm; “N” refers to several AI agents (i.e., “digital employees”) that replace traditional human labor to complete basic tasks.

Chai Daixuan said that this broad - sense OPC has a very flexible operation form and is not “necessarily composed of only one person”. It can be the founder working alone, relying on AI to “be a one - man army”; or it can start with one person and gradually introduce a small number of partners or auxiliary employees. The core founder takes the lead, and a small number of members cooperate with AI agents to carry out work together.

Fei Yuanhua, the founder of “Zhilin Xinjing”, a startup in the field of AI video creation, is also an OPC entrepreneur. He has a background in the game industry and once had the opportunity to participate in investing in film and television projects. He launched his AI entrepreneurship in June last year, and the company's team currently consists of 7 members.

“We provide a professional production tool - the Agent platform. Users only need to input a script, and the platform can automatically generate a TV series.”

According to him, compared with the traditional production model, the production cost of AI comic dramas has been reduced to one - tenth or even one - hundredth of the original, and the productivity gap between individuals and large teams has rapidly narrowed.

The platform launched by Zhilin Xinjing is called Neo AI. Fei Yuanhua said, “If you input an 80 - episode short - drama script with a total of 120 minutes into this platform, the platform can automatically generate the entire series, and the generation time for each episode is about 1 to 2 hours.”

Therefore, Fei Yuanhua frankly said that in the AI comic drama market, seniority is no longer the evaluation standard, and the practice of “seniority - based ranking” is no longer applicable. “Now, the creators who produce hit works may not be from this industry at all, and may not have any relationship with the content industry before.”

As Chai Daixuan said, AI not only lowers the “capital threshold” of entrepreneurship but also breaks the “ability threshold”, promoting the transformation of the entrepreneurship model from capital - intensive to cognition - intensive and redefining the decision - making value of individuals in the entrepreneurship process.

He gave an example and said that in the OPC model driven by AI, the basic labor cost required for entrepreneurship can be minimized. Entrepreneurs only need to master basic command statements, and they can use AI programming tools to automatically generate code and debug errors. At the same time, they can quickly produce multiple sets of high - fidelity prototype maps and complete product introductions through AI drawing and copywriting tools, effectively reducing the personnel input in the entrepreneurship process.

In addition, Chai Daixuan mentioned that local governments have successively issued relevant action plans, established special industrial support funds, and simplified the industrial and commercial registration process for “one - person companies”. These measures directly reduce the expenditures of entrepreneurs in terms of computing power acquisition, venue leasing, and qualification handling, truly breaking the resource barriers at the initial stage of entrepreneurship.

The Call Cost of Domestic Models Is “Low Enough” to Pave the Way for OPC Entrepreneurs

It must be mentioned that the rise of OPC entrepreneurs is closely related to the gradual maturity of AI products.

Tata recalled that since April and May last year, there have been many AI products that can improve work efficiency. With the iterative update of AI products, up to now, she feels that her work efficiency is still steadily increasing.

With the popularity of OpenClaw (an open - source artificial intelligence agent framework), this open - source AI agent called “Lobster” has become the “productivity plug - in” for OPC entrepreneurs.

“I'm not using 'Lobster' very well now. If I could use it very well, my productivity would definitely double.” Tata said.

At present, AI products are still in the stage of rapid iteration. On March 17th, Alibaba released the enterprise - level AI - native work platform “Wukong”, claiming that every team and every company can have a “Lobster Legion” that works 24 hours a day. At the end of March, Tencent's WorkBuddy WeChat mini - program was officially launched, supporting both cloud sandbox and local computer remote execution modes.

Chai Daixuan said, “The popularity of the OPC concept is directly causally related to the rapid development of AI technology. It is the rapid leap in the capabilities of AI large - models that has provided a practical path for this long - standing entrepreneurial concept that was previously only at the conceptual level to be implemented.”

However, at present, is the cost of using AI products a burden for OPC entrepreneurs?

Tata revealed that so far, her daily token usage is within an acceptable range. “I have subscribed to annual memberships for both Jimeng and Keling. On average, it's only three or four hundred yuan per month, which covers the cost of AI image generation.”

Lin Ming (pseudonym), the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of an open - source AI Agent platform, told reporters that the call cost of domestic models has dropped to “low enough”.

“Among our existing large customers, a considerable number can reach a daily call volume of 1 billion tokens. If they use overseas models, the annual cost budget is about 9 million yuan. If they use domestic models, this cost may be only a few hundred thousand yuan.” Lin Ming said.

It is worth mentioning that on April 4th, Anthropic, a leading US large - model company, announced that starting at 12:00 noon Pacific Time on April 4th, the Claude subscription service will no longer include the usage quota for third - party tools such as OpenClaw.

This may be an opportunity for domestic models. However, it also shows that there is great uncertainty in the current AI industry, and OPC entrepreneurs need to flexibly respond to various policy changes, function restrictions, and cost fluctuation risks.

Annual Income Ceiling of 5 million to 20 million yuan? How to Break the Ceiling of OPC Entrepreneurship?

When talking about the business model of OPC entrepreneurs, Yi Ze, the creator of the AI product Chat Memo and an AI blogger, said at a forum during the 2026 Global Developers Pioneer Summit (GDPS) that OPC entrepreneurs generally start from several directions: writing scripts for self - media, which can achieve quick monetization. He also relied on this for a period of time at the beginning; the second is independent development, building subscription services and deeply exploring value - added monetization; the third is shooting short videos to sell courses and creating paid communities for stepped conversion.

Tata revealed that she has a monthly income of more than 20,000 yuan, mainly from commercial orders and bonuses from participating in hackathons.

Fei Yuanhua told NBD reporters that as an OPC entrepreneur, the business model of his platform is relatively simple. He frankly said that in the case of a single call, the platform uses the same API interface without a discount. Only when the call volume reaches a certain scale will a special discount be provided. “Currently, the gross profit margin of the industry is about 30%, and this is where our profit comes from, which is almost completely transparent.”

Regarding the commercialization path after users produce AI videos, Fei Yuanhua revealed that he will try to connect the video products of creators with the content needs of video platforms. “The platform lacks TV series, and our users can produce TV series. Both sides have needs, so we facilitate direct docking.”

However, OPC entrepreneurs also need to face common problems in the industry. Fei Yuanhua frankly said that the phenomenon of “bad money driving out good” has begun to appear in the AI video industry. “Some people produce low - quality content to cut costs, resulting in high - quality content being unable to make a profit, and many people are forced to produce low - quality content.”

Under the current AI technology background, do OPC entrepreneurs have a clear ceiling?

Chai Daixuan said that even with the empowerment of AI technology, the annual income ceiling of most OPCs is concentrated in the range of 5 million to 20 million yuan. The key to breaking through this range is to introduce lightweight partners while retaining the core control of the founder, so as to effectively make up for the limitations of a single person's energy.

At present, when interviewing several OPC entrepreneurs, some entrepreneurs mentioned that their companies are seeking financing.

In this regard, Chai Daixuan said that the characteristic of a single shareholder in OPC essentially means that personal credit replaces corporate credit. Its risk - resistance ability and continuous operation ability are far weaker than those of team - based companies, which directly leads to a significant increase in the difficulty of financing.

Chai Daixuan believes that the core of breaking through this ceiling is to design a capital expansion structure through the equity structure. For example, while releasing part of the equity for financing, lock in the founder's absolute control over core matters such as the company's strategy, financing, and mergers and acquisitions.

Will OPC Become the Mainstream Entrepreneurship Form in the Future?

The OPC entrepreneurship model is surging. Can everyone do OPC?

Luo Xiaoshan is a well - known AI self - media blogger and OPC entrepreneur in the industry. He has a professional background as a product manager in a large company and is also the initiator of the AI community “Xiaoshan Closed - door Meeting”.

Luo Xiaoshan reminded that if practitioners do not have a clear understanding, cannot figure out their true abilities, and cannot see the boundaries between personal advantages and platform empowerment, and rashly enter the OPC field, they may experience a sharp decline in income.

“When employees of large companies are at work, they rely on the perfect infrastructure support of the enterprise, such as mature processes, standardized systems, and complete compliance systems. These are all invisible assets that they are used to when they are at work. But once they turn to OPC personal entrepreneurship, the resources they have will decrease, and the threshold for achieving results and breaking through in business will also increase.” Luo Xiaoshan said.

However, he also believes that for entrepreneurs with clear goals, firm beliefs, and clear plans, the current OPC model is a high - quality opportunity. “Currently, AI has strong capabilities, and relevant policies are also tilted. Those entrepreneurs who know how to make good use of AI tools, are good at integrating upstream and downstream resources, and are willing to actively connect and communicate will have certain advantages.”

Yi Ze also reminded that it is not recommended for OPC entrepreneurs to quit their jobs to start a business at the beginning. “You can first take some time after work to have a good chat with AI, do some quick BP (Business Plan) verifications, and see if there are a group of people willing to read your stuff, use your stuff, or join your group to listen to you.”

Chai Daixuan believes that whether OPC can become the mainstream entrepreneurship form in the future fundamentally depends on the dual guidance of technological evolution and market demand.

He said that from the current market development trend, the continuous generalization of AI capabilities is constantly expanding the feasibility boundary of “single - person entrepreneurship”. As various basic tasks such as programming, design, operation, and customer service are gradually replaced by AI agents, this ultra - lightweight entrepreneurship model centered on individuals is very likely to gradually dominate in fields such as digital content, tool development, and consulting services, and may even become the core starting point for future knowledge - intensive entrepreneurship.

“But it should be clear that OPC will not completely replace team - based entrepreneurship. For industries that require complex offline collaboration, heavy - asset investment, or high - level emotional communication, organizational collaboration is still indispensable.” Chai Daixuan said that in the future, the following entrepreneurship ecosystem is likely to be formed: OPC, as the carrier of a large number of “long - tail innovations”, will coexist with elite small teams and traditional enterprises in a hierarchical and complementary development pattern.

Up to now, technology is unprecedentedly narrowing the gap in funds and abilities for entrepreneurship, so that the creativity of ordinary people is no longer restricted by cost, seniority, and team size. Achieving success alone and starting a lightweight business have become the most vivid entrepreneurship pictures in the AI era.

In the future, individual entrepreneurs who can truly stand firm must not only make good use of AI tools to build an efficiency advantage but also adhere to the compliance bottom line and clearly plan the monetization path, so as to truly transform the entrepreneurial dividends brought by AI into long - term and stable business value.

This article is from the WeChat official account “National Business Daily”. Author: Chen Ting, Editors: Jin Mingyu, Huang Sheng, Du Bo, Proofreader: Zhang Jinhe. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.