A measurable shift in how businesses begin
More people are starting businesses. Companies House reported record incorporations in 2023, continuing a decade-long upward trend. GEM’s UK report shows that more than a third of working-age adults now expect to start a business, with early-stage entrepreneurial activity rising among under-35s in particular.
At the same time, ONS business demography data shows a rise in micro-businesses and one-person companies, with the majority of new formations being run by a single director or founder.
The entrepreneurial impulse hasn’t changed.
The way people start has.
People aren’t forming teams anymore...and there’s a reason
The average early-stage business in the UK today starts lean.
According to the BEIS Small Business Survey, over 75% of new businesses have no employees in their first year.
And many stay that way for longer.
Not because founders want to do everything.
But because modern tools, especially AI tools, allow them to delay their first hire for much longer than previous generations.
AI now supports early-stage tasks that used to require people:
- Research
- Admin
- Document Creation
- Planning
- Customer support basics
- Compliance guidance
This isn’t about replacing teams.
It’s about removing the need for one during the most fragile stage of a business.
The evidence: AI is already embedded in everyday work
Multiple studies show this shift clearly:
- Microsoft and LinkedIn’s 2025 Work Trend Index found that 70% of workers are already using AI tools in their day-to-day tasks.
- PwC’s AI workforce survey suggests that administrative, research and organisational tasks are among the most 'automatable' work categories.
- OpenAI & MIT research shows measurable productivity gains for workers who use AI for summarisation, drafting and planning tasks.
In other words:
AI is being used for the exact work that slows early-stage founders down.
That’s why solo entrepreneurship is rising.
Not because people suddenly have more time, but because they have more help.
Momentum is the real unlock
The biggest challenge new founders report (GEM UK & FSB surveys) isn’t lack of ideas.
It’s lack of clarity and administrative friction.
AI reduces that friction:
- Drafting business plans
- Checking name ideas
- Preparing early documents
- Helping explain compliance steps
- Turning questions into next steps
When friction falls, action rises.
This is why “start a business this weekend” has quietly become realistic for many people.
Running a business is easier when the boring bits get handled
ONS time-use studies show that micro-business owners spend a disproportionate amount of time on administration, often at the expense of sales, product work or planning.
AI directly solves the categories of work most founders avoid:
- Interpreting government guidance
- Producing first drafts
- Organising documents
- Summarising paperwork
- Creating checklists
- Preparing standard forms
The founder still makes the decisions.
AI simply clears the path.
What this means for new founders
The foundations of a business used to take hours of research and multiple tools.
Now the early stage can be done with clarity and confidence, often in a single workflow.
Solo entrepreneurship isn’t a trend.
It’s a response to new capability.
A new kind of support system
This shift doesn’t mean businesses are becoming robotic.
It means founders are becoming more human. More focused on the work only they can do. More in control of their time.
Tools can now provide support that, until recently, only teams could offer.
That’s the rise of the AI-enabled solo entrepreneur and it's reshaping where business begins.
