From greater flexibility to a sense of ownership and the hope of financial gain, solopreneurship feels like the new American dream. However, there’s a hidden cost to that dream that has nothing to do with the unending hustle that comes with being both a business owner and that business’s sole employee. It’s the undeniable cost to the planet.
In 2025, about 41 million businesses in the U.S. were run by a sole individual who is both its owner and only employee. As AI allows for solopreneurs to automate a growing number of tasks, the technology is enabling small businesses—from gigs like content creation to event planner or even niche work like dog grooming or jewelry making, and more—to absolutely thrive with a team of only one. Therefore, while an individual with an idea may have needed an entire team to turn that idea into real cash flow in the past, it’s now completely feasible (and massively popular) to do so with the help of AI.
That’s true for solopreneur Dan Mazei, who was formerly communications and marketing leader for organizations like Reebok, Tinder, Activision Blizzard, and Ford, and a long-time agency leader for major clients like Nintendo and Unilever. Now, Mazei runs his own business as the founder and principal of All Tangled Roots, a marketing consultancy for brands, with the help of AI. Mazei tells Fast Company that AI is crucial to his business model, as it can “level the playing field for a solo service provider against a sea of heavily staffed agencies” that are doing the same kind of work.
That same is true for Samantha Levitin, a solopreneur and founder of Levitin Collective, a boutique PR firm working across lifestyle, wellness, hospitality, and consumer brands, in NYC. (She’s also a new mom to a 15-month-old baby.) Levitin says that AI enables her to manage the dreaded mental load that comes with running a business while being a parent. “Starting my own firm meant knowing I’d be doing everything myself, and AI helped fill gaps that would normally require a small team, which I was used to,” Levitin says.
The solopreneur adds that she began building her business while on maternity leave, and, ultimately, it’s given her both “flexibility and balance.” She says, “I intentionally designed the firm to be small . . . and AI gives me back time and mental space so I can focus on what matters most in my field: creative thinking, relationship building, and hands-on client work.”
Still, we can’t talk about AI’s incredible power to turn dreams into reality without talking about the cost. While there are many challenges that may come from running a business made up of one—such as working around the clock, or the significant financial risks—there are also clear environmental costs which are largely being ignored.
According to a 2024 MIT report on the environmental impact of AI, the energy demands that come from both training and using AI are massive and growing all the time. In North America, electricity requirements increased from 2,688 megawatts at the end of 2022 to 5,341 megawatts by the following year, mostly due to the growing demand for generative AI. And experts worry we simply aren’t concerned enough about that stark reality.
Noman Bashir, lead author of the environmental impact paper, and a Computing and Climate Impact Fellow at MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) and a postdoc in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), says, per MIT, that the impact is massive but “everyday user doesn’t think too much about that.” According to Bashir, the reason is two-fold. “The ease of use of generative AI interfaces and the lack of information about the environmental impacts of my actions means that, as a user, I don’t have much incentive to cut back on my use of generative AI,” Bashir explains.
Jonathan Schaeffer, an AI researcher and CEO of a startup called Kind, agrees. Schaefer tells Fast Company that “not enough attention is being paid to the hidden environmental costs” of the widespread technology. “AI tools can significantly increase the energy consumption involved, particularly from the massive data centers required to support cloud-based AI systems,” the CEO explains. “These data centers, housing thousands of servers running AI models, consume large amounts of electricity, much of which is still sourced from nonrenewable resources, contributing significantly to carbon emissions.”
Schaefer adds that the technology also comes with a hidden financial cost that most people don’t realize they may end up paying for themselves. “In many jurisdictions, the capacity to feed these data centers contributes to a significant increase in the price of electricity, a cost that is often passed on to consumers.”
Moreover, the CEO says that data centers require more than energy to operate, but “they also need cooling systems to prevent overheating” which would increase their environmental footprint further. According to Bloomberg, which analyzed data from DC Byte, electricity costs in areas located near “significant data center activity” rose 267% over a month when compared to data from five years earlier.
Kevin Gast, cofounder and CEO of VVater, a next-generation water treatment company dedicated to using advanced technologies to address global water challenges, is mostly concerned with the pace at which AI is moving. “When you multiply millions of daily AI interactions across businesses worldwide, you’re looking at a significant environmental load that most people simply aren’t aware of,” Gast tells Fast Company. “Data centers are already using billions of gallons (of water) annually, and as AI becomes more embedded in everyday business operations, that demand is only accelerating. We’re seeing increased pressure on freshwater resources in certain regions, especially where facilities overlap with areas already managing water.” According to a 2025 global study from Arizona State University, freshwater resources have been drying up since 2002 at an unprecedented rate.
On the bright side, Gast says solutions are being developed almost as quickly. “We’re seeing serious investment in closed-loop water recycling systems, advanced treatment technologies, and strategic facility placement in regions with better water availability and natural cooling climates.” He continues, “The challenge now is accelerating that progress to keep pace with how quickly AI is being adopted across every sector.”
While more and more individuals are certainly turning to AI to run their businesses, that doesn’t mean they aren’t all totally in the dark about its impact. Mazei says that, on a human level, he’s cautious of big tech’s “overreach”, such as “potentially integrating someone else’s code into our most personal choices.” Still, the solopreneur credits the technology with helping him “choose a professional path” that he “didn’t believe was viable just a few short years ago.”
As the cost of living continues to soar, and even talented and driven professionals struggle to find well-paying jobs, solopreneurship may find that putting aside their concern for the environment is a small price to pay for making good on the American dream that feels otherwise hard to come by.