Fast Technology reported on February 14 that a young entrepreneur has built his own AI-driven app development pipeline—launching more than 120 apps in just five months. Remarkably, around 90% of those apps have paying users, and several products have even gained traction overseas.
His day-to-day workload is surprisingly light: he mainly reviews the apps generated by AI, completes quality checks, and submits them to app stores for release.
The entrepreneur, Zhang San, is a Hangzhou native born in 1997. A vocational school graduate, he’s had a wide-ranging career path—working in surveying, spending time in the hotel industry, and later transitioning into software architecture. He also explored opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) space along the way.
Since August last year, Zhang has taken an unconventional route into entrepreneurship: using AI to “mass-produce” apps at scale. At the center of this approach is the AI pipeline he built—designed to accurately capture market needs and serve as the core engine behind his business.
Instead of using AI as a simple assistant, Zhang lets it handle the most critical development work. His system scans demand across countries and industries, identifying gaps where “people need something, but no one has built it yet.” From discovery to generation, the entire workflow is AI-powered—meaning he wakes up each day to find two or three newly created apps ready for review.
This momentum reflects a broader shift driven by today’s AI boom: the rise of the OPC (One Person Company) model, where individuals can build distinctive value and viable businesses with minimal staffing.
In this new reality, AI isn’t merely a productivity tool—it’s becoming the ultimate “business partner” for young founders, helping them construct personalized commercial systems and scale faster than ever before.
That said, the OPC model also raises the bar for founders. As “super individuals,” they—or their small teams—must take full ownership of strategy, product development, AI training, and execution. Success demands strong overall capabilities and the ability to collaborate seamlessly with AI.
As one OPC leader put it: to truly refine an end-to-end business workflow, AI can support the work—but the human must still understand the industry better than the AI does.
