More than an AI COO,

perhaps what's emerging is an "AI right-hand person."

Lately,
as I've been observing AI services overseas,
I've been noticing an interesting trend.

Starting around May 2026,
something began showing up more and more around Product Hunt:

"AI COO"

as a positioning concept.

This feels like less about
AI tools per se,
and more about

a "redefinition of roles."

In this piece,
I want to take a step back
and organize this trend from a practitioner's perspective.

---

Not a "tool" —

it's beginning to exist as a "right-hand person"

Up until now, AI has mostly been talked about in terms of:

• Automation
• Efficiency
• SaaS
• Task support

But recent AI COO-type services
are a little different.

For example, they handle things like:

• Answering phone calls
• Organizing appointments
• Handling complaints
• Managing schedules

They're designed to support
the kind of "flow that wears people down."

That's why the name isn't
"booking tool" — it's

"AI COO."

I think this distinction
is actually really important.

---

People look at "roles,"

not "features"

It's the same in farming —

A good tool isn't chosen
just for its performance,
but for

"what it helps you do."

AI is a bit similar.

Being called an "automation tool"
doesn't resonate as much as being called

"an excellent right-hand person."

That framing makes the image
immediately concrete.

In other words, this is not

"selling features"

but

"selling a presence."

---

What's interesting is

that it's looking at non-IT workplaces

These AI COO-type services
aren't targeting large enterprises from the start.

Instead, they're looking at places like:

• Clinics
• Hair salons
• Small teams
• Solo proprietors

— places where
"operations tend to break down."

This feels very grounded in real-world experience.

In practice, the smaller the team,
the more likely people are to get worn out by details like:

• Answering calls
• Organizing bookings
• Replying to emails
• Adjusting schedules

So what they actually want isn't

"a high-performance system"

but

"a state where things just run smoothly."

---

The pricing model, too,

is a bit like "preparing the soil"

From a marketing perspective,
this is also really interesting.

Typical SaaS products are compared by:

"¥XX,000/month"

But AI COO does something different.

It shifts the point of comparison to

"labor costs."

For example:

• Hiring a person → ¥500,000–800,000/month
• AI COO → A few tens of thousands of yen/month

This isn't just a price comparison —
it's changing

"which arena you're being compared in."

In farming, when the soil changes,
so does how plants grow.

I think the way value is perceived
works a little like that too.

---

It's not selling "DX" —

it's selling "the air of the future"

Personally, what I found most interesting
was the copywriting.

These services barely use words like:

• DX promotion
• Operational efficiency
• Productivity improvement

Instead, they show a vision like:

"Give small teams

the execution power of a large enterprise."

I think that's really important.

People are often moved
not by feature explanations, but by

"the view on the other side."

---

In the age of AI,

"who you exist as" is becoming critical

What I've been feeling lately is that
in the age of AI,

it's not just about

"what you can do,"

but increasingly about

"who you exist as."

• Are you a tool?
• A right-hand person?
• A strategist?
• A partner?

That distinction makes a significant difference
in how your value is conveyed.

---

In Summary

These AI COO-type services
aren't just an AI trend —

they represent a shift in

"how roles are presented."

That's the current I'm sensing.

Not selling features, but selling:

• Roles
• Presence
• Flow
• The future

That's why lately,
I keep finding myself asking:

"Who does this service

stand in for?"

Well —
the soil doesn't lie.

The things with roots that have properly taken hold,
even if it takes time,
will quietly keep growing.