Setting Milestones and Metrics for Success: Business Timeline
Last week, I laid out the ambitious goal: build a fully automated AI business generating $10K monthly profit at 50% margins by the end of 2025. But ambition without a plan is a dream. Today, I’m sharing my AI business blueprint—my step-by-step timeline to make it happen.
New here? Welcome! This is the journey of building a 100% automated AI business in 2025. You’re jumping in after we’ve already kicked things off, so you might want to catch up first.
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But where do I start? My creator mind would have me run off and start building agents, scripts, and swarms at this point – but that’s not much use to you without a map of where we’re headed.
This post is that map.
AI Business Blueprint
AI Business Timeline
The target of this challenge is a fully automated business by the close of 2025. I’m starting this towards the end of January, so I’ve set myself up here 😅.
Let’s take a look at a rough timeline of how I envisage this playing out, so we can all laugh later at my optimism.

In broad strokes I’ve split this into 4 quarters, but I’ll explain each step of my plan below.
As stuff further out pivots on earlier aspects, this gets more abstract as it goes.
🕴️Q1: Project Kick-off & System Design
- Project Kick-off
- System Design
- First Agents
1. Project Kick-off
Here’s where we are as I write this on Jan 27th.
- Fully launched ProfitSwarm.ai (this blog & newsletter)
- Defined goals of the AI challenge
- Started the system design (as best as I can with my current AI knowledge)
- Drew up a schema of operations

2. System Design
Questions to answer here:
- How much does an AI business reflect its human counterpart?
- Is a job role equivalent to a smart agent, or a swarm, or a swarm of swarms?
- Do I keep a swarm running 24/7 – does the project benefit from operating night and day, or do AI agents only need 8..4.. Or 1 hour of work a day?
I’ll start practically and hammer through the different unknowns until I have the semblance of a plan.
Exploring the following, I’ll share everything with you as I go.
Business factors:
- Business models for experiments – Which business models lend themselves to AI operation?
- Products – Which products can AI make legit?
- Market / Niche – Which markets and niches will be easiest to profit in?
- Target audience – Given the above, who is my target audience(s)?
Tech factors:
- Define agent roles – How do I split out the work?
- Tech setup – What does my swarm need to be able to physically do? What existing tech supports this, and what do I need to hack together?
- Explore tools – Which existing options are plug-and-play
Experiments:
- Experiments – Which small experiments allow me to explore viability across the above?
3. First Agents
Once I have compiled all that into my AI business blueprint it’s time to build. Because I’m on a deadline I’ll use existing tools wherever possible (profitable) and start out building the swarm.
Here’s where I’ll share actual code and tool experience from the front-line, and start my experiments toward AI profit.
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Q2 2025: AI training and business model development
Experiment central. I expect to venture widely over the terrain of AI tooling, trying to find solutions to fill in the gaps where my AI business swarm is missing a skillset.
Expect:
- Experimental AI chimera
- Business model pivots
- Swarms that eat each other alive
- Hilarious products which shouldn’t work
- Perhaps a glimmer of AI profit hope
I’m aiming to have a ‘live’ test by the end of this quarter, whereby we stand up a swarm to fully run a business. I’m not sure what business this will be, and what the swarm will look like, but it’s exciting stuff.
🚀 Q3 2025: Proper launch of AI-run business operations
Taking all of the learning from the years’ experiments I will attempt to properly launch a fully AI-run business, cutting the guy ropes and seeing if it can truly stand up on its own.
Here we’ll watch how it gets on as it connects with customers, (and competitors!), and ventures forth to add value to gleam profit in the real world.

I’ll be sharing the full process, diagrams of the swarm, and sharing how you can recreate each aspect for your own business (whether 100% AI or a blend).
Expect:
- A little actual profit
- Tentative scaling up
- Some comedy system bugs
- Lots of how-to guides if it actually works
Q4 2025: Evolution & Longevity
If any of this at all goes to plan, we’ll wrap up 2025 with champagne, not pure pain:
- Performance analysis: Let’s see how we did, a Profit & Loss for the year
- Evolution: How does this look in 2026? Is this going to make money?
- Longevity: How safe is the swarm in the face of radical AI growth?
I look forward to us all reaching this point in the journey, way more equipped to deal with 2026+ AI business life.
AI Business Metrics
With all that said, let’s firm up what we’re aiming for in measurable outcomes:
Metric 1: Profit
The primary goal: $10,000 per month in profit at a 50% margin, (enough to replace all other business stuff I do).
It may be possible to get a higher profit at a lower margin, but we also have to consider risk here, in this incredibly fast moving world of AI.
Note: I’m really curious how this pans out. Does this require a blend of business swarms? How scalable is it? I look forward to running experiments and sharing the results.
Metric 2: % Automated
100% is the goal.
As in – totally automated, spitting out bank payments without a human’s oversight.
But as we go I suspect we’ll start at a lower percentage and craft our way towards 100%.
I will call this a success if we get anywhere near the goal. Even if we don’t include the set-up stage where a human may be beneficial in the loop.
It’d be wild if this could be nested though, with a swarm of swarms which had a leadership bot establishing new sub businesses.

Metric 3: Value added / Do no harm
Is what’s being made/served of value to humans? This is subjective, but I’ll qualify it based on my own moral compass.
Likewise this must not harm any other human, with the grey area being what if it does work a human could have done? I’m still on the fence with this debate, but I expect to have more answers once I’ve built this thing.
Metric 4: Long Term Viability
Will this stay alive autonomously for a year? 2026? Longer? Will it crash and burn in weeks, or days? Let’s see.
I’ll track and share these metrics as we go, for each experimental swarm and overall. Let’s see if we can achieve them this year.
AI Business Milestones
So rolling that all up into some milestones, the AI business blueprint looks like this:
- Business plan(s) ready
- First experiment live
- Some profit made by a partly AI Swarm
- 50% automated operations
- 100% autonomous swarm
- Some profit made by a 100% AI Swarm
- Challenge complete: 100% AI, $10kpm profit, not a douche swarm
I’m thrilled to take on this challenge and share every success, failure, and insight with you. Let’s ride this AI wave together—subscribe and join the journey!
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