Circle CEO Deploys AI Double to 1,000 Employees as Executives Test Digital Clones
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 6
Circle CEO Deploys AI Double to 1,000 Employees as Executives Test Digital Clones
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 6
Summary
More than 1,000 Circle employees can now query an AI version of CEO Jeremy Allaire, which he trained on podcast interviews, public writing and internal communications.
Allaire first built the tool as a writing assistant using Claude, then expanded it after seeing it closely mimic how he thinks and writes.
The bot, dubbed the “Jeremy Allaire skill,” lets staff hold a dialogue with his AI before escalating ideas or questions directly to him.
Similar experiments are spreading across business: consultants, executive coaches and Harvard Business School professors are using AI doubles for client interactions, courses and office hours.
Start-ups including Delphi, HeyGen and Synthesia are making such replicas easier to build, offering text, voice and video avatars that can mirror a person’s style, appearance and language.
Is a CEO's AI double a communication tool or a clever marketing ploy for the new AI-powered economy?
As AI agents manage trillions in transactions, can we build the infrastructure for trust and accountability fast enough?
79% of Executives Are Adopting AI Doubles: The Rise, Impact, and Risks of Digital Leadership Avatars (2025-2026)
Overview
Between 2025 and 2026, businesses and tech leaders rapidly adopted AI executive doubles and digital avatars to boost efficiency and automate routine tasks. This shift was driven by the desire to free executives from time-consuming activities, as seen when Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan used an AI double for a major earnings call. Yuan’s vision extended to creating AI avatars for all workers to handle repetitive 'grunt work,' allowing people to focus on more valuable tasks or even enjoy more personal time. These AI doubles now act as extensions of executives, managing daily operations without replacing human leadership.