In his newsletter, Ethan Mollick takes stock of the past few months of dramatic, exponential improvement in AI agents. Their sudden improvement in delivering actually “reasonable and useful” results, he writes, is beginning to unlock radical changes in the shape of work (particularly in the software industry). But what shape will that be?
At the frontier, a small tier of software shops is allowing AI agents to build the software themselves—no human coding, no human review. That’s a lot more profound than the simple automation of tasks or process; that changes the whole business model. That those experiments are possible to run at all is remarkable. Where will they land, and what does that mean for other industries? “AI is good enough to change how organizations operate,” Mollick writes, “and the experimentation is just getting started, even as models continue to improve.”
What will be the Thing that AI becomes? We still don’t know, but this feels like a foundational moment to shape that outcome. Right now is when the assumptions and applications of AI are beginning to firm, not just the underlying technology:
When a technology is this powerful and this unsettled, the choices that individuals and organizations make right now matter more. We can see the shape of the Thing now, but we can still influence the Thing itself, and what it means for all of us. We clearly don’t have rules or role models for how AI gets used at work, in schools, or in government. That’s a problem, but it also means that every organization figuring out a good way to use AI right now is setting a precedent for everyone else. The window to shape the Thing may not last long, but it is here now.
You have a role. Your organization has a role. This is not a time to be passive.
