Alex Bouaziz
13 May 2026Deel CEO Joins, Thinking Machines, OpenAI Joins, Anthropic SPV’s, Helsing $18B
Deel's Akai: AI Agents Automating Operations End-to-End
Alex Bouaziz gives background on Deel — global payroll and HR for 40,000 customers over seven years, moving over $2 billion a month through 1,500 bank accounts — and explains how AI exposed how much of the business is manual. He describes building Akai, an AI-first system that lets anyone at the company create agents automating operational tasks end-to-end, taking payments automation from around 96% to 100% within weeks of launch. He recounts going into founder mode with a single engineer and a deliberately fresh perspective to rethink Deel as if it were built AI-first.
Alex Bouaziz on Founder Mode, Agent Ops & Token Spend
Bouaziz contrasts founder mode with manager mode, saying he was pushed toward management to avoid being a bottleneck but has deliberately returned to being hands-on to drive exponential growth. He aligns with Brian Armstrong's recent takes on higher IC-to-manager ratios and 'teams of one,' notes AI trainer roles are up 283% in cross-border hiring, and describes a new 'agent operations' role for maintaining and improving agents. He also covers Deel's token-credit program for all 7,000 employees (with 95%+ daily active usage), the Nexus internal app store, his skepticism of token spend as a productivity metric, and the advice he'd give his younger self.