May 2026 – AI: The Force-Multiplier for Business Simulation Cheats and Scoundrels
We’re all part of a giant AI business simulation. Whoops – we meant AI business experiment… As participants in this experiment, we thought it might be helpful to describe how we are using AI in our business simulation classes and competitions here at PriSim.
To go back a bit: first we had to include a credit-rating disqualifier. Then it was that revenue couldn’t shrink more than 25% in the final year. Then a requirement not to fire 900 of your employees via Zoom after calling them “dumb dolphins”. The list of desperate attempts to game our simulations goes on – all for a chance to win a silver prize-pen worth about $2.
While we admire and celebrate each one of these ultimately futile attempts to replace honest hard work with shortcuts and trickery, we’ve had to up our game against the gamers now using AI – the force multiplier for would-be business simulation cheats and scoundrels.
Here are the AI boundaries we’ve put in place in our classes:
Heck Yes…!
- Use AI to analyze EOY results, income statements, balance sheets, and cash flows.
- Quick terminology lookups: combined ratio, loss tail, EAC, ETC, etc. (pun intended…)
- Real-world industry averages and benchmarks.
- Team logos, taglines, stickers, victory songs.
- But only if a team thinks they actually have the time to do any of this during a 1.5 hour decision-making round during which their competitors are trying to eat their lunch and spit it back at them.
No Way…!
- Feeding decision-screens into an AI and asking it to make decisions for you. If you’re going to do that – remind us again why we need you?
- Choreographing dance moves. We’ve actually seen this now – not nice.
We lay out these guidelines right at the start of our classes, and most participants get on board immediately; in fact, most avoid using AI at all during our classes. Turns out thinking for yourself is more rewarding than letting HAL 9000 have all the fun…
PriSim helps develop better business thinkers, not better AI prompters, and we partner with our clients on our AI strategies class-by-class. One client wanted AI projects and approaches woven into PriSim’s classes one year, but switched to focusing on pure business acumen the next. Another client strictly forbade AI use as a company policy, but the next year devoted nearly a third of their Letter to Shareholders describing how they are now deploying AI across almost every aspect of the company. Going forward, PriSim will continue to collaborate with our clients to refine our approach and adjust our use of AI.
AI is still young and rapidly evolving, but pairing it with solid, capable business leaders who’ve practiced business thinking under pressure with their hands directly on the controls – that’s a dance move that actually delivers.