When I first sat down on Zoom with Jason Criddle to talk about AGI, I anticipated a high-level tech conversation. Instead I got a story. A good one about a founder, a legacy, a book, and a mission that ties directly into what AGI can and should mean.
In his recent post on DOMINAIT.ai, Jason wrote:
“We drew out the logic, the thinking, the conversations… we started with how he thinks, 3 years of idea exchanges and logic, if this then that, and emotional exchanges and real conversations…”
Those quotes alone capture how Jason and his team treat AGI. Not as a distant horizon, but as an imminent operative reality. They claim it exists now. And you know what? I believe them. I just wish I could have gotten my hands on that limited beta.
What AGI Really Means Today
The term AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) remains contested. Some labs define it as “a system that can perform any intellectual task a human can.” Others warn we’re still decades away. Jason says they have arrived.
One succinct summary:
“Artificial general intelligence (AGI) refers to machines that possess human-level intelligence and can perform any intellectual task that a human can.”
Yet despite the debate, what struck me in the interview with Jason was how he reversed the question. Instead of asking “when will AGI arrive?”, he asked “how do we build something now that behaves like AGI is supposed to, even if the label hasn’t yet been universally accepted?”
From Trainer to Trillionaire to Building an AGI Ecosystem
Jason’s first book, Trainer to Trillionaire: From Building Memories to Building a Legacy, came out over a decade ago. In it, he laid out a framework for helping small business owners scale, build brands, train teams, and build legacies. In our conversation, he connected the dots:
“My first book seems to tie directly into the path I am on to helping small businesses and also using Smartr’s ecosystem to give back to the people who helped me build my brands. The funny thing about vision and belief is, when I wrote that book, I hadn’t started a software company yet, and genuinely had zero clue how I was going to fulfill such a huge goal.
But, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Right before I wrote that book I told all of my personal training customers that by the end of that year, I was going to train my customers for free. When they asked how I was going to pay my bills, I would respond with ‘I don’t know.’
By the end of the year, I started selling a multi-level marketing protein powder and told all my customers that I would cut the cost of my training if they bought the protein. I was already making my customers buy protein, but I wasn’t making money off of it yet.
At the same time, I turned my brand into a nonprofit and started educating large groups rather than training individuals. Since I had a website and a book, I started allowing trainers to list their own services on my website and helped a few write books. What started as a dream of giving my customers free training without a clue came true… simply because I made the decision to make it happen.”
In essence, his Smartr ecosystem reference points to his broader vision: Using his brand-building experience inside organisations like Smartr and now DOMINAIT.ai to create something that doesn’t just deploy AGI, but deploys AGI with purpose, aligned with businesses and pays people who built the ecosystem as users.
So when I asked him: “Why call it AGI if most labs say we’re years away?” his answer was precise:
“Because AGI isn’t about waiting for the lightning strike. It’s about architecting intelligence that knows business, knows people, and knows legacy.”
For Jason, the phrase “AGI” was less about category and more about capability. The ability to generalise across domains, business strategy, brand-building, mentorship, and even emotion.
Why Jason’s AGI Is Different
In our wider discussion, he highlighted three pillars:
- Human-first logic: The architecture supporting the AGI at DOMINAIT.ai is not built purely from scale or raw data, but from the “if this → that” flows of human decisions and real business logic.
- Purpose over hype: While many firms sprint toward AGI as a goal.. “tell us when you’ll hit human-level intelligence,” Jason prioritizes the user, the business, the brand, and the ecosystem that supports people.
- Pre-launch revenue mindset: He emphasized how DOMINAIT’s AGI ecosystem is structured to deliver value from day one, not just a promise value later like the major brands out there burning through hundreds of billions of dollars while delivering entertainment and no real value. He said:
“We will be making money from day one of launch, rewarding our users, and having software that actually helps businesses make money.”
That aligns directly with his book’s message: train, build, scale, and share the reward.
AGI in Context: What the Industry Is Saying
The broader AI industry continues to debate AGI in nuanced ways. For example:
A recent piece notes:
“The meaning of artificial general intelligence remains unclear… systems that match or surpass human capability in most or all intellectual tasks.”
Another article reports:
“OpenAI and Microsoft are dueling over AGI… whether AGI is near or still theoretical.”
Some labs are skeptical about the timeline:
“3 reasons AGI might still be decades away.”
In that light, Jason’s claim that his platform is AGI-ready appears bold, but his argument is rooted in real business workflow and brand logic rather than pure performance benchmarks. He told me:
“When someone does a report saying 95% of AI businesses fail… A huge amount of them have been built on OpenAI. Our model will never be about profits for us or investors first. We always think about our customers first.” That customer-first mindset is rare in the AGI conversation and that statement alone deserves attention.
The Launch & Pre-Launch Opportunity
Here’s where the article turns pragmatic: DOMINAIT.ai is now open for pre-launch specials. The countdown timer is ticking toward January 15th, 2026. Jason confirmed:
“If asked what happened to the January 1st launch, I just responded… Two reasons. One, I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver, and two, I wasn’t planning on being hospitalized for 3 months while working on Ryker.”
This transparency reinforces that what they’re building is grounded in reality. Human reality and business reality. And the pre-launch pricing is structured to reward early adopters with a cheaper price, plus they are putting it on a Smartr app so users can earn as affiliates for getting users to invest in the brand too.
If you’re a small business owner, a brand builder, an affiliate, or simply someone who wants to engage with AGI that’s purpose-driven, this is the entry point.
The messaging is clear:
“We care about the user first. We have prices that are very fair and even reward for training and bringing in new users.”
For someone reading this article now, you’re being given a window before launch into what Jason terms “the next level of AGI for business”.
Why This Matters for Small Businesses
In our interview I asked: “How does AGI matter for the guy running ten clients, a marketing stack, and trying to scale a team?” His response was crisp:
“AGI isn’t for the mega-corporation only. It’s for the founder, the coach, the operator, and the brand builder. If you can delegate invoices, estimates, integrations, if you can ask a system ‘What’s my cash-flow risk this week…’ then you’ve got AGI working for you. Read the article on our client running 36 websites and apps and using SmartrCommerce with Ryker integrated.
She realized she had spent over $300,000 in 5 years for the same tasks that would have cost her about $20 dollars a month with Ryker. It literally made her sick.”
In that sense, this AGI system seems to me like intelligence and utility. Not OpenAI toys. It’s the ability to take disparate business components (invoices, clients, apps, systems) and integrate them into one intelligence layer.
That ties directly back to Trainer to Trillionaire. In the book Jason wrote about training people, scaling companies, and creating systems that give back. The AGI path at DOMINAIT doesn’t abandon that. It amplifies it.
Final Thoughts: AGI You Can Experience
When I wrapped up our interview I asked: “If someone says ‘AGI isn’t here yet’, what would you tell them?”
Jason replied:
“AGI isn’t a scoreboard you wait to hit. It’s the shift you start living when your system thinks like your business partner. When your tech doesn’t ask you ‘What do you want?’ it asks you ‘What do you need? What’s next? Oh, by the way, I accomplished this task simply because I saw it needed to be done.”
For readers of this article, here’s the takeaway: If you’ve ever read Trainer to Trillionaire and believed in the capacity of small businesses and brand-builders to punch above their weight, then this next chapter (AGI via DOMINAIT.ai) is for you.
Pre-launch pricing is live. The countdown to January 15, 2026 is counting. The Dominait Smartr App will probably be live by the time you read this article, giving you the chance to earn money referring users. And earn money when they refer users too.
If you join now, you’re not just buying a tool, you’re joining a mission. DOMINAIT is a community, not a tool.
Ultimately, when AGI is embedded in purpose, brands and their people win. And with Jason Criddle’s vision, and the ecosystem he’s built, you’re being handed the keys to that movement.