Kevin O’Leary Predicts AI and Blockchain Will Power the Next Business Revolution

Entrepreneur and Shark Tank co-host Kevin O’Leary believes the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology will ignite the next major shift in how businesses operate. 

In a recent video shared on X, the multimillionaire investor explained that AI will soon be capable of making autonomous retail purchases, while blockchain will handle secure and instant payments in the background.

O’Leary described a near-future scenario where consumers can simply speak to

their phones to order products. The AI would instantly identify the nearest retailer, place the order, and execute payment using a blockchain-based system, all before the customer arrives. 

According to him, the technology will be able to recognize individuals automatically, so stores can prepare their orders in advance without additional input.

The Challenge of Scaling Retail Transactions

Despite his optimism, O’Leary acknowledged a key limitation: the lack of a scalable blockchain capable of processing millions of transactions simultaneously at minimal cost. He argued that networks like Ethereum face bottlenecks because they process transactions in a sequential order, which leads to congestion and high fees during periods of heavy use.

He compared the process to cars piling up on a long highway leading to a toll booth — each transaction must wait for its turn to be validated, slowing down the entire system. This structural design, he said, prevents current blockchains from supporting the volume of activity required by global retail giants such as Walmart and Target.

However, alternative architectures like Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) may offer a solution. Unlike traditional blockchains, DAGs validate multiple transactions simultaneously in a web-like structure rather than one by one. Platforms such as Hedera and Nano already use this model, though they have yet to achieve mass adoption on the scale of Ethereum or Solana.

Searching for the First Scalable Solution

O’Leary said he is closely watching for the first project that can handle these demands at scale, one that could process millions of small, independent transactions every day. Such technology would have enormous commercial value for major retail and food service chains that depend on high-volume, low-cost transactions.

Ironically, the investor who once criticized people for spending on expensive lattes now envisions an automated world where AI orders those same coffees for consumers — and blockchain quietly processes the payment.

While agentic AI systems are already capable of performing tasks like searching, scheduling, and ordering, O’Leary believes the missing piece is a payment infrastructure fast and cheap enough to keep up. When that problem is solved, he said, the fusion of AI and blockchain could transform everyday commerce and redefine how businesses interact with customers.