Kevin O’Leary says there are two Mr. Wonderfuls, and one isn’t human.
When the “Iced Coffee Hour” hosts asked O’Leary whether AI could replace him, he said that it already was. The “Shark Tank” investor said that he’s training an AI version of himself, called “AI Kevin,” to talk and act like him.
“My wife can still discern the difference on a screen, but in about a month she won’t be able to,” O’Leary said. “The only thing now that is the slight tell is the voice intonation.”
He didn’t specify which AI model he was using, but referenced a new version that spends three days listening to the user’s voice. In three days, O’Leary said he will cycle through everything from “wake up voice” to “coffee voice” to “drinking wine voice.”
The tool will then apply its learnings to the “Kevin O’Leary agent.” He called the agent “incredible,” and said that he was starting to use it.
One of the podcast hosts asked: Can AI Kevin replace Mr. Wonderful’s work hours? Could it, for example, take his phone calls?
O’Leary responded that the theory was “way off.” He told a story of a recent early-morning bike ride, where he got an idea for how to elevate his Kobe Bryant trading card. He called LVMH’s Nicole Weiss.
“We just got in a group chat, and we designed this thing based on how that card looks, and which diamonds should be where,” O’Leary said. “I thought to myself: Would AI ever do that? Probably not.”
Kevin O’Leary wore his $12,930,000 Kobe x Jordan card to the Oscars to honor Kobe…
“I’ll wear that at the Oscars… Because Kobe should be back in LA” pic.twitter.com/Glo4Ptid7v
— The Iced Coffee Hour (@TheICHpodcast) March 29, 2026
While AI is good at implementation, O’Leary said, the human’s thinking process is so random that it is still needed for pure innovation.
He listed off examples of AI’s lack of creativity. O’Leary can spot “AI slop” in student essay submissions, he said, and found AI music to sound “formulaic.”
O’Leary joins a handful of other investors and executives building their own AI clones. In March, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio invited his X followers to have a conversation with Digital Ray.
Business Insider tested it out. Digital Ray said that he liked Taylor Swift concerts and hunting big game in Africa.
