Artem Lyashanov, entrepreneur, fintech expert and investor Can an algorithm teach an entrepreneur to think better than their own intuition?
Today, research and practice in the fintech industry show that artificial intelligence (AI) does not replace entrepreneurial thinking, but expands it, changing the way risks are assessed, the speed of plan revisions and the flexibility of reaction to uncertainty.
This article is about what exactly changes in the head of an entrepreneur when AI becomes part of daily work, and why it matters to everyone building a business in 2026.
AI as a simulator for strategic thinking
Traditionally, entrepreneurs have relied on experience, limited data and intuition. Scientific research in recent years shows that with the advent of AI, this model is changing and changing precisely at the level of thinking, and not just processes.
Case
Researchers at the University of East London analyzed the behavior of 376 entrepreneurs working in one of the largest technology markets in West Africa. The study concluded that those who actively and consciously use AI demonstrate greater strategic flexibility and are faster at revising plans under pressure.
An important nuance, the authors emphasize, is that it is not the presence of the technology itself that has the effect, but the way it is used.
- AI works as a thinking simulator when integrated into strategic thinking, and not used as a background application;
- In an environment with high uncertainty, those who can quickly revise the plan gain an advantage, not those who have the “perfect” plan;
Training that focuses only on the technical skills of working with AI misses the main effect, confidence and speed in decision-making.
“This coincides with what I see in the fintech startups I work with. AI significantly improves the quality of decisions in teams that already know how to ask the right questions,” notes Artem Lyashanov.
AI in everyday business decisions
About how this thinking materializes in specific business processes: risk assessment, customer service, financing.
Example
Large e-commerce platforms have long shown that recommendation systems that analyze the behavior of millions of users are able to predict demand before it becomes apparent from classical analytics. Similar principles are gradually coming to fintech.
Models that take into account non-traditional data allow decisions on lending to small businesses to be made faster and with less paperwork than classical banking procedures.
AI-based fraud detection systems analyze transactions in seconds and stop suspicious operations before they cause damage (a function that even ten years ago required entire compliance departments).
What this changes:
- The barrier to entry in financial services is decreasing;
- The approach to risk is shifting from reactive (detecting a problem after the fact) to proactive (anticipating it before it occurs);
- The advantage in decision-making speed is less dependent on the size of the company and more.
“In payments, we have long lived by the principle: data is more important than feelings. AI has simply accelerated this transition and made it available not only to banks with billion-dollar budgets, but also to early-stage startups,” explains Artem Lyashanov.
The limits of trust in AI
AI is reshaping the very role of the business founder.
Businesses that exist only thanks to AI. The emergence of accessible language models has spawned a wave of products that simply could not exist before, customer support assistants, educational services, content tools built around ready-made AI solutions. The entrepreneur here acts as the architect of how it interacts with a real business task.
At the same time, the growth of AI capabilities does not relieve the entrepreneur of responsibility, but even increases it:
- Algorithm bias;
- False sense of confidence;
- Data protection and implementation costs.
“AI imitates confidence very well. This is the biggest trap for inexperienced founders, to start trusting the algorithm more than their own market analysis,” emphasizes Artem Lyashanov.
