ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A St. Petersburg investor tells Tampa Bay 28 reporter Michael Paluska that artificial intelligence has become his most valuable business partner — one that never takes a day off, never calls in sick, and never asks for a paycheck.
Alex Jandick, owner of 131 Cash Home Buyers, says he now relies on an AI agent called Claude to handle nearly every administrative task in his one-person operation — from marketing to bookkeeping — saving him more than $41,000 a year.
Before making the switch, Jandick was paying $2,500 a month for marketing and nearly
$1,000 a month for a bookkeeper.
“Did you tell them that you replaced them with AI?” Paluska asked.
"Nope. I just let them go," Jandick said.
Today, Claude handles both for $100 a month.
“So what does Claude do now for the marketing side?” Paluska asked.
“Everything, everything that I tell it to,” Jandick said. “I sit in my office, and I tell a robot, Claude, what to do.”
After spending about two weeks setting up and fine-tuning the system, Jandick said the results were immediate.
"It's like holy smokes! This is — it was everything that I had wanted to get done at a cheaper rate for a year," Jandick said.
Now, Jandick says he and Claude essentially split the workload. A human still has to verify the information and input the correct prompts. But the AI takes it from there.
"I put in 25 to 30 hours a week, and I have Claude probably putting in 25 to 30 hours a week," Jandick said.
Jandick is the sole employee of his company, meaning no workers were displaced when he made the switch. Still, after posting online about his AI-driven savings, he faced criticism.
"I get that there's going to be haters out there," Jandick said.
He pushed back directly.
“I’m saving $41,000 per year; for me, that is an incredible amount of money. That's my kids' college savings funds.”
The broader question of how many jobs AI could eliminate remains unsettled. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, AI will displace 92 million jobs globally by 2030. However, the same report projects 170 million new roles will open up—a net gain of 78 million jobs worldwide. A separate 2026 Goldman Sachs study estimates 300 million jobs globally are exposed to automation by AI, though that research did not cite specific numbers for job gains.
For Jandick, the technology has changed more than just his bottom line. He said he used to feel isolated working alone. Now, he tells Paluska, that has changed.
"Before Claude, I did get lonely," Jandick said. Now, I wake up in the morning with a bit more energy. I'm more excited because it's like I don't have to work so hard to break even each month. So, I'm pumped. You know, it does take a little bit of legwork to get all set up and everything, but I have not found anything that is a better cost cutter than AI at this point," Jandick said.
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