Organizations as Code: Creating Foundationally-AI Companies

In the world of technology, some of the biggest leaps forward happen when an existing paradigm is applied to a new domain. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) revolutionized how we manage computing resources. What's next? Organizations as Code (OaC).

What is Organizations as Code?

We can now create organizations 'as' code. When activities and processes are programmable and executable code, we can create organizations that can all but run themselves. But what does that mean? Organizations as Code entails the expression and connection of everything related to your company, in both code and data. From any applications, to databases, to AI agentic processes, to external integrations etc... all of these can be connected and enabled by Gen AI.

Like Infrastructure as Code, where infrastructure is created and managed by executable code, !!! quote "Organizations as Code creates organizations or organizations that are created and managed by executable code."

Organizations as Code takes the essence of IaC—treating infrastructure as programmable code—and applies it to how we structure and operate companies. Built by, and enabled by Gen AI, when 'organizations are code' complete automation of all organizational processes becomes possible.

Oac, Like IaC, can take the expression of an assembly of pipelines and API calls executed in particular orders to execute company processes.

!!! note "Example: Hiring a new employee" What processes? Well, say you need to hire a new employee. Well because you have a 'new employee' process, it will automatically:

- Research the candidate has the right skills and experience (An AI workflow or service)
- Relay results and organize interviews (Communication and organization workflows)
- Review and score the candidate (HR Workflow) 
- Recommend next steps (HR Workflow)
- Notify the team (Communication Workflow)

If they're hired then it will run another workflow. 

- Create a new employee record (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's HR system (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's email system (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's chat system (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's calendar system (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's document system (API or Workflow)
- Add them to the company's expense system (API or Workflow)
- Launch onboarding process

!!! important "Example: Building products... building itself"

With AI-enabled, or AI-automated coding, Organizations as Code, becomes possible. It is possible to build powerful features and applications within minutes to hours. This obviously includes the OAC itself. When you need to add a new feature, you can simply write the code to add the feature and it will be added to the organization. Need to determine a new process? Explain the challenges and work with AI to determine the solution, implement it, and test it. This is the power of Organizations as Code. 

**Organizations as Code are fundamentally AI-native.**

What is codified?

Organizational charts become code: Teams, reporting relationships, and roles are defined in machine-readable formats
Decision-making processes are explicit: Authority levels, approval chains, and governance structures exist as testable flows
Responsibilities are clearly mapped: Each role's scope, objectives, and interfaces with other roles are precisely defined
Changes are tracked and reversible: Just like git for code, every organizational change is documented and can be rolled back

Where Infrastructure as Code manages technical resources, Organizations as Code provides a blueprint for how teams are structured and interact.

OAC companies are fundamentally different than traditional companies.

Why Does This Matter for AI Organizations?

AI systems become significantly more effective when they can understand and interact with clearly defined organizational structures:

Structural Understanding: AI can analyze your org chart, responsibilities, and processes to identify optimization opportunities
Process Automation: When workflows are coded, AI can automate routine organizational decisions and flag exceptions
Organizational Learning: Changes to structure and process can be tested in simulation before deployment
Institutional Memory: Every organizational decision is tracked, providing rich training data for future AI improvements

Challenges of 'Organizations as Code'

There are some obvious challenges as organizations begin to treat their organizational logic like software:

Visibility vs. Complexity: Putting everything in code can reveal hidden complexities, dependencies, and inefficiencies. Initially, it might feel like you're shining a bright spotlight on flaws that were easier to ignore. But once documented, these complexities become trackable and ultimately more manageable.
Flexible vs. Rigid: Organizations as Code enforces consistency, which can feel limiting to teams accustomed to ad hoc processes. However, by standardizing the core, companies free teams to innovate on top of a reliable foundation, rather than reinventing the wheel each time.
Useful vs. Useless information: Storing and organizing all information is useful. Some information is just noise which takes up space and distracts from the important stuff.
Freedom vs. Standardization: Organizations as Code enforces consistency, which can feel limiting to teams accustomed to ad hoc processes. However, by standardizing the core, companies free teams to innovate on top of a reliable foundation, rather than reinventing the wheel each time.

Organizations as Code in the Real-World

Early adopters:

Tech Companies: Startups encode their entire org structure, including roles, responsibilities, and decision rights, enabling rapid scaling and consistent operations across multiple offices
Remote Organizations: Distributed companies use OaC to maintain clear communication patterns and responsibility boundaries across time zones
DAOs: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations represent the extreme edge of this trend, encoding their entire organizational structure in smart contracts

In each case, organizations gain unprecedented clarity, adaptability, and the ability to leverage AI for organizational design and optimization.

The Organization as the Ultimate Agentic 'Tool Box'

Tools provide AI agents with the ability to execute other functions, like calculators, API calls, or even other agents. Sets of tools form the 'toolbox' of an AI agent.

!!! quote "Organizations as Code provide the ultimate toolbox for AI agents."

With the ability to programattically access all aspects related to an organization, OaC, provides agents and agent systems with the ability to understand and evolve organizations.

Organizations as Intelligent systems.

Organizations may already be considered as general artificial intelligent systems: they are able to make decisions, learn, and evolve. Their embodiment is generally distributed, and grounded in the physical world, with people, computers, buildings, and other physical resources. Their int

AI singletons

The Future of Organizations

Organizations as Code provides a fundamental shift in how we will structure and operate companies. By encoding organizational design in machine-readable formats, we enable AI systems to understand, analyze, and help evolve our companies at speeds limited only by the rest of the World. While this approach requires careful implementation and balance, it provides the foundation for truly AI-native organizations that can adapt and evolve at the speed of software.

The future belongs to organizations that can seamlessly combine human creativity with AI capabilities. Organizations as Code provides the interface between these two worlds, enabling us to build more adaptive, efficient, and intelligent companies.