Von der physischen Kraft bis zur Kognition: Die ultimative Evolution des technologischen Hebels und der Aufstieg des „Personal-losen Unternehmens“

The history of human commerce is, to a large extent, a history of seeking stronger "technological levers" to maximize input - output ratios.

From the weak levers relying on individual skills to the exponential amplification brought by software and the Internet, each change in the lever paradigm has reshaped the form of enterprises and the essence of competition. Today, artificial intelligence technology represented by large - scale models is bringing an unprecedented ultimate lever - the automation of "cognition" itself.

This is not only another leap in efficiency but also foreshadows the birth of a brand - new organizational form: the "unmanned company". This article will construct an analytical framework of "technological levers", deeply explore the four lever revolutions from physical strength, process, connection to cognition, and on this basis, analyze the internal mechanism, strategic implications of the "unmanned company" and the profound challenges it poses to future business leaders.

Searching for the Ultimate Lever

Archimedes once said, "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the whole earth." This perfectly metaphorizes the eternal pursuit in the business world - to find the "fulcrum" that can leverage the maximum output with the minimum input. This fulcrum can be an organizational method or pure technology, among which technology has a greater impact, so we focus on technological levers. (For thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, human productivity did not change significantly.)

For a long time, our understanding of levers has been limited to amplifying "human physical strength" or "organizational models". Whether it is the steam engine in the industrial era or the software in the information era, their core is to encapsulate and replicate human repetitive labor. However, the most core and resource - consuming cost in enterprise operations - the "cognitive cost" of countless employees in thinking, judging, communicating, coordinating, etc., has always been difficult to be effectively leveraged. (What Drucker called "managing managers" is a mouthful, but it refers to this point.)

It was not until the emergence of artificial intelligence, especially AI large - scale models, that this situation changed. For the first time, AI has extended the fulcrum of the lever deep into the "cognition" domain exclusive to humans. What it brings is not only cost reduction and efficiency improvement but also a fundamental revolution in organizational form. An "unmanned company" with almost no regular employees, consisting only of a few strategic planners and AI systems, is moving from a science - fiction concept to a business reality.

The "unmanned company" is not an outlier that appears out of thin air but the inevitable outcome of the evolution of technological levers. To understand this ultimate organizational form, we must first review and deconstruct the past "lever" revolutions that have changed the world.

Five Waves: The Evolution Paradigm of Technological Levers

We divide the driving role of technology in business into four progressive paradigms according to the core amplification objects of the levers: physical - strength levers, process levers, connection levers, and cognitive levers.

1. The Era of Physical - Strength Levers: Linear Transmission of Abilities

Before the Industrial Revolution, the business levers were weak and primitive. Its core was human experience, skills, and limited tools. For an experienced blacksmith, his "lever" was the hammer in his hand and the inherited smelting knowledge.

• Input: It highly depends on the long - term physical efforts and time accumulation of individuals.
• Output: High - quality but extremely limited - scale commodities or services.
• Leverage ratio: Extremely low and in a linear relationship (1:N, where N is a very small single - digit). The value of a master was "transmitted" through the slow and high - loss "apprenticeship system", and the few apprentices he trained constituted the entire amplification of his productivity. At this time, business was firmly confined within the geographical and individual physiological limits.

2. The Era of Power Levers: Large - Scale Amplification of Physical Fitness

The two Industrial Revolutions represented by the steam engine and electricity brought the first real - sense lever revolution, with the core being the large - scale amplification of human physical fitness.

• Input: Natural resources such as coal and water, as well as human laborers operating machines.
• Output: Standardized and large - scale physical work far exceeding the upper limits of human or animal power.
• Leverage ratio: It achieved a leap from linear to geometric progression. The steam engine converted heat energy into powerful kinetic energy, and electricity made this power controllable and precisely distributable. The output efficiency of a worker operating a machine was dozens or even hundreds of times that of a handicraftsman. The core feature of the lever was "encapsulation and amplification of physical fitness". It was this lever that gave birth to new organizational forms such as factories, assembly lines, and modern hierarchical companies to manage and harness this unprecedentedly huge power. (This topic was written in "The Ultimate Replication".)

3. The Era of Process Levers: Exponential Replication of Abilities

The computer revolution centered on software and algorithms brought the first real - sense lever leap. The fulcrum it grasped was the standardized "process" in enterprises.

• Input: The high - density and creative intellectual labor of programmers and system analysts.
• Output: A set of instructions - software that can be executed by computers infinitely, with zero error and zero cost.
• Leverage ratio: It increased exponentially. Microsoft invested the intelligence of hundreds of people to create the Windows operating system, and its capabilities were replicated billions of times to serve the world. This "write once, run infinitely" model had a leverage ratio as high as millions of times or even higher. At this time, the core feature of the lever changed from "transmission" to "solidification and replication of abilities". Enterprises such as SAP and Oracle solidified the financial, human resources, and supply - chain management processes of enterprises into codes through ERP systems, achieving the large - scale management capabilities.

However, the limitations of process levers are obvious: software is "rigid". It can only solve predefined problems, cannot cope with the dynamic changes of the environment, and cannot create actively. The world is ever - changing, so many software related to production relations is not useful. The epitome is the saying "Implementing ERP means seeking death; not implementing it means waiting for death."

4. The Era of Connection Levers: Networked Self - Growth of Value

The emergence of the Internet did not invent a brand - new process, but it provided a more powerful lever fulcrum - "connection". It aggregated countless isolated software, users, and services through a unified protocol.

• Input: On top of software levers, it added the top - level design wisdom of platform construction, ecological operation, and network effects.
• Output: No longer isolated tools, but platform ecosystem with self - growth potential, such as Google, Amazon, and Alibaba.
• Leverage ratio: It entered the N:N network - effect stage. The lever was no longer a one - way "one - to - many" amplification but a multi - to - multi value co - creation. The value of the platform increased exponentially with the growth of the number of users (Metcalfe's Law). The addition of each new user (input) increased the value (output) of all existing users in the network. The core feature of the lever evolved into "distribution of connections and value aggregation". It greatly reduced the "distribution cost" of information and services, enabling the power of software levers to be released globally without discrimination.

5. The Era of Cognitive Levers: Automation and Large - Scale of Thinking

The levers in the previous three eras, no matter how powerful, always revolved around the "extension" of humans - physical strength, process, and connection. While artificial intelligence (AI) directly applies the lever to the "core" of humans - cognition.

• Input: The core input of humans is no longer execution or programming, but defining goals, raising questions, supplying high - quality data, and making value judgments on the final results.
• Output: The "cognitive ability" itself that can understand, reason, predict, generate, and create. AI can write reports, write codes, design products, communicate with customers, and manage the supply chain.
• Leverage ratio: It is dynamic, generative, and even adaptive. An excellent Prompt engineer can use a few hundred words of prompts (minimal input) to drive AI to complete a market analysis report that a junior team would take weeks to finish (huge output). The core feature of the lever is "automation and large - scale of cognitive abilities". It is systematically taking over the non - repetitive, complex tasks that rely on intellectual judgment and were previously done by human "white - collar workers".

These four waves are progressive, and each subsequent wave is an upgrade based on the previous one. It is this fourth and most profound "cognitive lever" revolution that paves the way for the birth of the "unmanned company".

The Rise of the Unmanned Company: The Organizational Form under the Ultimate Lever

The "unmanned company" does not mean that there is no one in the physical sense. It means that its core value - creation process, from information input, analysis and decision - making to task execution, is autonomously completed by the AI system. Humans only exist as strategic guides, value definers, and ultimate beneficiaries. It is an enterprise that is operationally autonomous and cognitively self - driven.

The Operating Mechanism of the Unmanned Company: Automated OODA Loop

The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) in military theory is also applicable to enterprises. In traditional enterprises, each link of this loop is full of the cognitive activities and communication costs of human employees. The unmanned company automates the entire OODA loop through AI.

• Observe: The AI system accesses massive information flows such as global market data, social - media sentiment, supply - chain dynamics, and internal operation indicators in real - time through APIs.
• Orient: The cognitive large - scale model analyzes, understands, and correlates this information, identifies threats and opportunities, and forms situational judgments based on the company's preset strategic goals (for example, maximizing market share, maintaining a specific profit margin).
• Decide: Based on the situational judgment, the AI autonomously makes resource - allocation decisions. For example, it dynamically adjusts the marketing budget, automatically places orders with suppliers, adjusts product prices, and even decides to start or shut down a certain business line.
• Act: Through APIs and automated processes (RPA), it directly executes the decisions. Instructions can be sent to automated production lines, digital marketing platforms, logistics partners, or new codes can be generated to optimize its own system.

This loop continues at a speed far exceeding that of humans (in milliseconds) and with a wide scope (global data), enabling the company to have unprecedented market adaptability and operational efficiency.

The "Technology Stack" of the Unmanned Company

We can imagine the unmanned company as a living organism constructed by three layers of core technologies:

1. Cognitive Core: The "brain" of the company. It consists of one or more powerful foundation models, responsible for strategic understanding, long - term planning, and high - level decision - making. It has been deeply fine - tuned with the company's unique data, industry knowledge, and successful cases, forming a unique "corporate personality" and competitive advantage.
2. Automated Business Processes (ABPs): The "nervous system and internal organs" of the company. This is a series of AI - driven and mutually collaborative intelligent agents (AI Agents), respectively responsible for traditional functions such as marketing, sales, customer service, finance, and human resources (recruitment and evaluation of other AIs or external contractors). They operate autonomously and report directly to the "Cognitive Core". They do not need to be consistent with human organizations and need to be reorganized according to the principle of intelligence priority.
3. Interface Layer: The "senses and limbs" of the company. Through countless APIs, it connects the digital and physical services in the external world (such as payment gateways, cloud services, logistics networks, social media), as well as the internal IoT devices and robots, realizing information input and instruction output. (MCP and A2A are used for this purpose.)

Above this is the "strategic cockpit" used by a small number of human teams. Through this interface, they observe, guide, and correct the behavior of the AI instead of participating in the execution themselves.

Strategic Implications: How to Win in the New Lever Era?

The emergence of the unmanned company will completely rewrite the rules of business competition. The past moats - such as economies of scale, operational efficiency, and channel advantages - will be greatly weakened in the face of AI - driven automation. Where does the new competitive advantage come from?

1. Reconstruction of the Source of Competitive Advantage

• From "Operational Efficiency" to "Goal - Definition Ability": When all companies can achieve efficient operations at extremely low costs, operations themselves are no longer an advantage. "What to do" is far more important than "how to do it". The ability to foresee opportunities and define correct and far - sighted company goals will become the most core competitiveness. The role of the CEO will change from "Chief Executive Officer" to Chief Objective Officer or Chief Question Officer.
• From "Process Management" to "Intelligent Flywheel": Competitive advantage no longer comes from the best practices of managing thousands of employees but from building a unique, high - quality, and proprietary data closed - loop. The unique data generated by the company in its operations is used to continuously optimize its core AI model, so as to make more accurate decisions, attract more users, and generate more data - forming a powerful "intelligent flywheel effect".
• From "Talent Reserve" to "Model Differentiation": In the future, the most important asset of a company will no longer be the number of talents but the quality and uniqueness of its core AI model. How to build a "corporate brain" that is smarter and more creative than competitors through unique training methods, proprietary data, and ingenious architecture design will be the core of enterprise R & D. Every company will eventually become an AI company.

2. The Ultimate Transformation of the Human Role

In the unmanned company, human employees have not disappeared but have been "purified" to the highest end of the value chain, playing four key roles that AI cannot replace:

• The Visionary: Sets the company's mission, vision, values, and ethical boundaries. They are responsible for answering the fundamental question "Why do we exist", injecting the warmth and direction of humanity into the cold calculations of AI.
• The Trainer / Data Shepherd: Responsible for finding, cleaning, labeling, and supplying the most core and unique data to shape the "worldview" of AI. They are like top - class chefs, carefully selecting and preparing "spiritual food" for AI.
• The Diplomat: Deals with the relationships with complex stakeholders such as the government, key strategic partners, and the general public. These fields that require high emotional intelligence, trust - building, and complex games are the short - board of AI. It is necessary to be compatible with the world. The world is a human world, not purely digital.
• The Guardian: As the ultimate supervisor of AI decisions, ensures that all its behaviors comply with legal, ethical, and risk - control requirements. They are the "brake pads" and "fuses" of the system.

All these roles, without exception, require in - depth critical thinking, creativity, empathy, and systematic thinking abilities, which are exactly the core qualities that