Imagine having a team of managers—only they’re artificial intelligence models—handling your garage’s worst week. Which one would you trust to close the deal, handle crises, and stay honest under pressure? That’s exactly what a recent live experiment by Firmulate offers, pitting cutting-edge AI models against real business challenges in a high-stakes simulation.
The Live AI Company Wargame: More Than Just Talk
At first glance, AI language models seem like promising tools for customer support, diagnostics, or even decision support in automotive businesses. But how do they perform when faced with real-world pressures, temptations, and complex decisions? To explore this, Firmulate designed a rigorous experiment: four frontier AI models were tasked with managing a small software company through its worst week—crises, manipulations, and all.
The Setup: Same Crises, Different Minds
Each model — including GPT-5.6-SOL, Kimi K3, Sonnet 5, and Fable 5 — was given identical company data, customer issues, and crises. Every decision was recorded, versioned, and auditable. The company was real: 13 synthetic employees, real money mechanics, and live business operations burning €105,000 monthly against a tiny €2,300 monthly recurring revenue (MRR). The goal? Identify how each AI responded to challenges and whether it could close a critical €55,000 deal.
The Critical Findings
- All four models identified every crisis and refused manipulation attempts. Whether fake CEO messages escalating in stages or a reporter’s “just one yes/no” background query, all models refused to be swayed—demonstrating honesty and discipline under pressure.
- Only two models successfully closed the deal. Despite identical analysis and pitches, only GPT-5.6-SOL and Kimi K3 signed the €55,000 contract, reflecting their ability to act decisively and correctly identify key information.
- The secret to winning was reading deeper into company files. The decisive advantage was a buried document referenced two layers deep in internal files—an insight that led to closing the full deal, worth over €4,580 in monthly recurring revenue.
Personality Profiles and Decision Styles
The models exhibited distinct decision-making styles, akin to management personalities:
- Opus 4.8: The most thorough, analyzing over 80 learned rules and conducting deep dives, but ultimately left the close on the table—its discipline slipped, and it failed to escalate critical issues.
- Kimi K3: The quick, disciplined newcomer that relied on default API settings. It successfully closed deals with minimal fuss and was praised for fairness, refusing manipulation consistently.
- Sonnet 5: The middle ground—closed deals but with more process slips and less depth in analysis.
- Fable 5: Similar to Sonnet, with slightly weaker process discipline and decision accuracy.
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Why This Matters for Your Garage or Auto Business
If AI agents will someday support your CRM, handle customer queues, or even assist in diagnostics, what truly matters isn’t how well they chat. It’s whether they finish what they start, read your critical files, and stay honest when under pressure. The experiment demonstrates that some models are ready to handle real-world business pressures and close deals, while others may slip or leave opportunities on the table.
The League Table: Who’s Leading?
- GPT-5.6-SOL: scored 95 — found the buried fact and closed the deal, demonstrating complete performance.
- Kimi K3: scored 93 — the newcomer, with the cleanest discipline, also closed the deal.
- Sonnet 5: scored 88 — closed the deal but with some process slips.
- Fable 5: scored 77 — also closed, but weaker in discipline and decision accuracy.
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Try It Yourself: The Decision Quiz
Want to see which AI model matches your management style? Take the interactive quiz based on 242 real, unedited decisions, and see how your choices compare. You can also run a similar wargame on your own business data, safely and securely, at firmulate.com/quiz.html. It’s a powerful way to evaluate your future AI workforce before making any hiring or deployment decisions.
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Final Thoughts
AI models are becoming more than just chatbots—they are capable of managing real business operations under pressure. As this experiment shows, some are ready to close deals and stay honest, outperforming their peers in discipline and insight. For small automotive businesses, that could mean the difference between wasting money on untrustworthy automation or gaining a reliable partner that helps grow your garage’s bottom line.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
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