Katie Deighton

The age of growing headcount is over, at least in the world of AI startups.

Small companies are doing all they can to remain that way, whilst growing revenue as part of a bid to showcase efficiency to investors.

We take a look at how the trend is reshaping the tech industry.

Then we're going on a tour of America's newest tech factories.

After years of political promises and encouragement from the government, more chip makers and other manufacturing companies are breaking ground on U.S.

plants and gearing up to hire American workers.

But can these facilities really compete with their counterparts in Asia?

Stay with us to find out.

But first, once upon a time, a growing headcount at a new company was seen as a positive sign.

Now, in an age of AI outsourcing, not so much.

Some Silicon Valley startups are running leaner than ever, using the latest AI tools to keep staff numbers as low as possible.

My colleague Belle Lynn is here to talk about this new flex.

So, Belle, generally speaking, where are these companies finding that AI works best within the workforce?

Are there particular jobs or even functions that you've heard these AI companies cutting out and replacing with technology?

And how lean is lean?

Like what kind of headcount versus revenue range are we talking about here?

And how low can they go?

I mean, your story mentions the idea of the one person company.

Is that a feasible thing that we're going to be seeing in the future?

For companies that have more than one person right now, when they're talking about getting lean, are they talking about keeping their headcounts low from the beginning or are they talking about firing people?