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There Are Only 'Two Types of Companies Now' - Mark Cuban's Blunt AI Warning to Business Owners

He says these kind of companies will run everybody else out of business.

By Chris Lewis, CEPF , Edited by Calista Headrick

Updated Aug. 16, 2026

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Mark Cuban isn't pulling his punches when it comes to AI and business. He's said there are "two types of companies in this world... those who are great at AI, and everybody else," a line he first delivered at a 2023 business conference and has been repeating and sharpening ever since.

Company size doesn't get you off the hook. Cuban says it makes no difference whether you're running a side gig to make extra money on the side or managing a payroll of thousands. Everyone needs a working grasp of how AI will reshape day-to-day operations, customer relationships, and the ability to reach new customers.

He's not asking owners to chase every new tool that launches. He's asking them to get curious enough to figure out where AI actually fits their business before a competitor does it first. Here's the fuller picture of what he means by that, and where he says the real risk sits.

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The warning has gotten sharper

Cuban first made this argument at a 2023 business conference, mostly framing it as a risk of falling behind.

By 2025, talking with former senator Jeff Flake at Arizona State University, he hardened the line further, saying AI-fluent companies would simply "put out of business" everybody else. He's compared the holdouts to the businesses that once dismissed personal computers and the internet, and paid for it within a decade.

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Why small businesses have the most to gain

Cuban has pointed out that most small and mid-size companies don't have AI budgets or in-house AI experts, and that's exactly why the opportunity is bigger for them, not smaller.

He's said there are "millions of companies... that aren't going to have AI budgets, aren't going to have AI experts," which means an owner willing to experiment now can close that gap faster than a competitor waiting on a formal strategy.

A CNBC and SurveyMonkey survey found only 37% of small business owners currently use AI tools, though 71% plan to increase that investment, meaning the door is still wide open.

A real example of the gap already playing out

He isn't just talking in the abstract, either, but is discussing what he's seeing play out. Cuban recently reposted an example from electrician Jason Walls, who built an AI tool called ChargeRight that helps EV owners figure out whether their home's electrical panel can handle a charger before they ever call a contractor.

Walls described himself as proof of the exact shift Cuban keeps warning about, a solo tradesman using AI to solve a problem that bigger, slower-moving companies in his own industry hadn't gotten around to.

AI is "stupid," but it never forgets

Most of us know by now that AI isn't magic, and Cuban agrees. On a call with Clipbook founder Adam Joseph, he called it "stupid," pointing out it still makes basic mistakes a person wouldn't.

But he also described it as "a savant that remembers everything," meaning its real strength is pattern recognition and recall at a scale no employee can touch. Used carelessly, he warns, it becomes an expensive distraction instead of an edge.

Learners vs. avoiders

While originally talking about businesses, Cuban applies a similar split to individuals. In a post on X, he said there are two types of AI users: "those who use it to learn everything, and those who use it so they don't have to learn anything."

That second group carries the real risk. Other tech leaders have echoed the point. Investor Bill Gurley called AI "jet fuel" for people trying to build real skills faster, while rival AI executives have warned that overreliance breeds the exact deskilling Cuban is describing, making both workers and the businesses they run lazier over time.

What small business owners should actually do

You don't have to completely overhaul your business and become an AI tech giant overnight. That's impossible. And overkill. Pick one or two workflows and test AI on them directly rather than trying to automate everything at once. Customer service is a natural starting point, since a basic chatbot can field routine questions and free up time for the conversations that actually need a person.

Marketing copy, expense tracking, and inventory forecasting are equally good candidates, since all three lean on repetitive pattern work AI already handles well. Treat every output as a draft that still needs your judgment, not a finished answer, and build that habit now, before a faster-moving competitor forces the issue. Track how much time each experiment actually saves before expanding it, so the decision to go further is based on results instead of momentum.

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Bottom line

You shouldn't fear AI or jump onto every trendy AI bandwagon that pops up. But, whether you have a huge business or you're a freelancer working remotely, you need to find and leverage the AI processes that really work for your situation.

Be the person who understands the tools well enough to apply them to real problems, not one of those who either ignore it or lean on it so hard they stop thinking for themselves. A one-person shop with no IT budget can move on AI faster than a large company weighed down by process and approval chains, and Cuban has pointed to his own company, Cost Plus Drugs, as proof that even a small AI-literate team can automate real workflows and outcompete slower rivals.

Remember, though, that leveraging AI is only helpful if you can measure and quantify the results so you can see whether it's a true productivity booster or a shiny distraction.

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