The AI revolution marches on. The chatbots are somewhat old news now, though they are everywhere and inundating the world with content that is very difficult to distinguish from human endeavor. The big new AI blitz is ‘agents’ and one of their primary uses – ‘vibe coding’.
AI agents are software programs that performs tasks autonomously on behalf of a user. They utilize neural networks and machine learning like chatbots, but they are set up to act independently from the user once a set of instructions or goals are provided. The classic use case is for an AI agent to act like a human travel agent, booking flights, rental cars, hotels and other travel details without user intervention.
When I envision a world of AI agents I am reminded of the sorcerer’s apprentice, that Disney Fantasia animation that portrayed a magic spell run amok and out of control. I wonder if AI agents will have a similar effect on human activity.
The use of AI agents in the workplace is being aggressively marketed and the corporate world seems eager to incorporate them, whether out of FOMO or true belief. Companies hope to see significant increases in productivity when these agents are deployed.
For the economics to work out the huge expenditures that AI companies are making in data centers, development and LLM training must be offset by ever-increasing revenues from companies paying for these agents. And in turn, these companies must see increasing productivity which either reduces expenses (less employees) or increases revenues for the same number of employees.
I have little doubt that AI agents will have significant impact in the corporate world. Whether they will cause the feared tsunami of layoffs and unemployment is difficult to predict. In a perfect scenario, the cost of goods would decrease and there would be full employment with a shorter workweek. But getting to that perfect world will be painful at best, and perhaps impossible.
We are seeing a test case for this in the coding world. Vibe coding is eliminating the need for low level programmers and increasing the output of higher-level architects and designers. Computer science majors, having been exhorted for decades to ‘learn to code’ are leaving college facing a scorched earth landscape of job options. The industry may evolve to establish new job types and accommodate future grads, but first indications are not encouraging.
In our personal lives, the prospect of using an AI agent may seem tantalizing, like having your own administrative assistant. It can pay bills, set up doctor appointments, schedule lunches or coffee with friends, plan a trip, organize your computer, manage your investments and perform a multitude of other tasks.
But when you hand over so many of your tasks to an AI agent, do you lose agency in your own life? Do you become ever less aware of the details and mechanics of living? It may save you time, but what will you do with that time? Isn’t part of being human attending to the mundane details of life? Isn’t there a certain satisfaction and Zen-like quality to performing those tasks?
AI will seem irresistible to many, if not for its utility, then at least for its cachet and the feeling that one is technology savvy. But its creeping invasion into our lives must be carefully monitored and measured to calculate its true value and measure what we lose in the process. Beware that you do not end up like the sorcerer’s apprentice, outsourcing your tasks and being overwhelmed with runaway technology.
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