During this year's National Two Sessions, Luo Weihong, a National People's Congress deputy and vice director of the Hangzhou Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee, submitted a proposal related to "building an employment and entrepreneurship adaptation system," which mentioned the increasingly popular "one-person company." On the afternoon of March 8, shortly after the Zhejiang delegation concluded its discussions for the day, officials from the National Development and Reform Commission approached Luo Weihong to inquire about the concept of "one-person companies." Luo stated that the "one-person company" trend has expanded from the AI community to the entrepreneurial sphere and is now a topic of discussion at the National Two Sessions.
A "one-person company" (OPC) refers to an entrepreneurial model where an individual leverages AI tools to handle standardized tasks such as code generation and content creation, while focusing on strategic decision-making and creative design. Zhong Bo, an NPC deputy and chairman of XGIMI Technology Co., Ltd., noted that in recent years, entrepreneurs in fields like digital content creation, cross-border e-commerce, and software development have significantly improved their work efficiency through artificial intelligence, enabling a single person to accomplish tasks that previously required a team.
According to Luo Weihong, OPCs lower the barriers and risks associated with starting a business while stimulating individual innovation. More importantly, they facilitate a shift among young people from seeking jobs to creating jobs, offering a highly autonomous and flexible new path for employment. Hangzhou, where Luo is based, has become a hub for such ventures. Over the past year, Luo visited innovation ecosystems like "Liangzhu Digital Bay" in Yuhang District and "Honghu Hub" in Shangcheng District, observing numerous small teams of one to five people engaged in AI-driven entrepreneurship, many of whom are post-90s or even post-95s graduates who started businesses immediately after university.
However, this rapidly growing new model faces constraints within traditional institutional frameworks. Luo's research revealed that most OPCs struggle to register as formal market entities initially, encountering obstacles in signing contracts, issuing invoices, and accessing corporate financial services. Traditional entrepreneurship support policies often target teams or small businesses with employees and physical premises, whereas OPCs incur costs mainly in computing power procurement, cloud service subscriptions, and knowledge payments, with few tailored recognition standards or support tools.
Additionally, "one-person entrepreneurs" act as both employer and employee, facing unstable income and higher occupational risks, which significantly increases long-term insecurity. Zhong Bo highlighted similar issues, citing tax and fee systems as an example. He pointed out practical difficulties in recognizing costs such as AI tool subscriptions, cloud service fees, and model usage fees for OPCs in areas like cost collection, invoice acquisition, and pre-tax deductions. Many entrepreneurs experience unstable income, upfront expenditures, and fragile cash flow in the early stages, suggesting room for improvement in how existing tax policies encourage innovation investment.
Luo emphasized that a robust innovation and entrepreneurship support system is crucial for OPCs. She recommended that authorities like the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation guide local governments to learn from existing practices and systematically support OPC development through institutional, policy, and ecological measures. Institutionally, she proposed exploring lightweight market entity registration categories such as "innovative individual businesses" or "digital creators" to simplify registration processes and grant capabilities like invoicing, intellectual property applications, and access to corporate financial services.
On the policy front, Luo suggested that relevant departments collaborate with capital, universities, and industrial chains to provide qualified OPCs with startup support packages including "low-cost space + R&D subsidies," targeted computing power subsidies, and inclusion of core costs like cloud services and knowledge payments in subsidy or deduction ranges. Zhong Bo also submitted a proposal supporting OPC development, advocating for the exploration of a "digital one-person enterprise" system interface within existing legal frameworks, improved tax policies supporting digital production factors, flexible social security mechanisms aligned with agile employment, and credit evaluation and financing services for digital micro-entities.
Luo stressed the importance of an innovation ecosystem, noting that cities like Beijing and Hangzhou have established various innovation communities such as "AI North Latitude Community" and "Liangzhu Digital Bay." She suggested that regions develop more AI-industry-focused, digital-nomad-centered composite ecological communities integrated with local culture, creating closed-loop physical spaces and service systems. Simultaneously, collaboration with industry institutions could promote third-party certification systems for AI application skills and achievements, providing entrepreneurs with a "capability manual."
While supporting new models, regulation is also essential. Zhong Bo advocated for an inclusive and prudent regulatory approach towards OPCs, emphasizing "standardization before expansion." He recommended developing clear compliance guidelines for data usage, advertising, and consumer rights protection, translating complex rules into practical "operational checklists," and adopting measures like reminders and rectification periods for minor violations, while strictly regulating false advertising, infringement, tax evasion, and data misuse.
Several cities have already introduced local OPC policies. Beijing launched the first service plan for AI "one-person startups," Suzhou is accelerating efforts to become the "global top choice for OPC entrepreneurship," Qingdao issued its first OPC business license after the Spring Festival, and Wuxi New District released draft measures supporting the integration of open-source community projects like OpenClaw with OPC communities.
The wave of OPCs continues to grow. Zhong Bo remarked that creativity is a key element in forming a commercial闭环, but ideas often face delays due to funding and institutional constraints. With AI technology offering new pathways for idea generation, creating a fertile innovation environment could help these ideas take root and potentially nurture many "unicorns." Wang Jian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and director of Zhejiang Lab, views OPCs as the extreme minimization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He noted that AI's rapid development presents significant opportunities for SMEs, particularly startups, but emphasized that success requires practical effort rather than ready-made solutions.
This year's government work report called for efficient use of the national venture capital guiding fund, vigorous development of venture and angel investment, and patient capital leadership from government investment funds to help more startups grow into tech leaders. Regarding AI, Wang Jian interpreted this as creating a favorable AI innovation environment to transform startups into leading technology enterprises. He concluded that small scale does not equate to limited opportunities for SMEs; in fact, they face substantial potential, much like during the early days of the internet.