The AI Agents Are Coming

No, this isn't cause for alarm (yet? Maybe?), but it is an FYI to prepare for the next paradigm shift in technology.

It's been two years since the release of ChatGPT, one of the most successful tech product launches in history. In less than a few months, 100 million active users were experiencing AI in a way that felt like magic. And even though it's been normalized by now, the experience of using these chat-based LLMs still feels powerful.

Well. We're about to experience another massive leap in the AI space.

The term is AI Agents, and the critical difference is this.

With ChatGPT, AI finds or creates information to return to humans. It was then up to humans to ask the next question or (and this is the key part) take the next action.

AI Agents take LLMs from passive teachers to active participants. Now, humans and other AI agents can give AI agents tasks. This has massive implications and potentially provides a 10x or 100x productivity gain over chat-only LLM solutions.

AI Agents aren't exactly new. About a year ago, some early adopters cobbled together some rough examples. About six months ago, major tech leaders began drumming up interest in their potential importance and impact. See Levie's thread.

https://x.com/levie/status/1782164161553961069

The difference now is that AI Agents are active in the wild. Crypto meme coins worth $500M are now actively traded and managed by agents. Full platforms have spun up, and you can rent and buy agents on demand. Full protocols are being developed to allow you to integrate this into your existing applications.

What are the implications?

Imagine being able to remote, digital employees and contractors. Only this time, they aren't people. They are machines that can think and act on your behalf if you can give them a well-defined target. And they can work together. One agent can have conversations with and direct other agents. In essence, you can form swarms of AI agent teams.

In short, these agents have... agency.

And with that agency, they can take action.

It's wild to think about these implications. A year ago, they were still just demos and dreams. Now, they are here. You will begin to see them in consumer-facing products within the next year.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, pay attention now.