Companies will hire Agents as employees with specific ROI targets ($15k/yr cost, $150k value).
The foundational thesis of AIA Limited. Traditional software is a tool - you buy it, configure it, use it. AI Agents are different: they have ongoing operational costs (tokens, compute), they improve over time (fine-tuning, prompt refinement), and they deliver measurable value per task. This makes them economically equivalent to employees. A business should evaluate an AI Agent the same way they evaluate a hire: What's the annual cost? What value do they produce? What's the ROI? At $15k/year in API costs, an Agent that automates $150k worth of human labor is a 10x return. Companies will have 'Agent headcounts' alongside human headcounts. AIA is already operating this model: AI Employees with defined roles, costs, and revenue targets. Proof: aia.works is live, revenue-generating, and built entirely on this thesis.