AI agents are stealing our jobs

or are they?

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Amber Rhodes & Dillon Young
October 11, 2024 • Est. Reading Time: 6 minutes

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TL;DR

  • Why are AI agents taking over? Companies argue they’re the perfect personal assistants, but the reality is a little different.

  • How do you feel about Zoom AI avatars sending messages to your team as you?

  • 🎶 If I could turn back time 🎶 — would you try out a different career path?

Let's talk shop 🔧

reading daily news about companies trying to replace me with AI

AI agents have raised $8.2 billion in the last 12 months. What’s the big deal?

Yep, this is another take on AI, but you won’t want to skip it. The Verge shared a great article yesterday about the rise of AI agents. Here’s what you should know:

What are AI agents?

AI agents are bots that act autonomously to “perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with environments with little human input.” And if that sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve seen them pop up everywhere.

AI companies argue that AI agents differ from current autonomous systems because they can function within an environment, learn, and make decisions without much human input.

Will machines steal our jobs, really? 

Up to this point, the answer has been “not really” — because human intervention was still key. AI agents will, in theory, be able to replace human intelligence to handle very human tasks, like handling customer success plans or closing deals.

Buuuuut, in practice there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Companies are banking on AI’s potential

So, AI agents haven’t been perfected yet. (And to be fair, neither have humans 😅). Some of the downsides include:

👎 They can’t handle issues with complex workflows and unexpected scenarios

👎️ They’re harder on the environment because they burn more energy than traditional bots/scripts

👎️ They are kinda…creepy. Human-like AI agents feel super uncanny valley.

But the upsides? AI agents are where the BIG money is going right now. That $8.2 billion in investor funding over 156 deals? That’s a +81.4% increase year over year.

What to expect next

Market pressures are prompting more companies to develop AI agents, and more entrepreneurs to go where the money is. Expect to see more AI companies going mainstream in 2025.

In the meantime, we mainstreamers can still debate: Is it worth it to trust AI with high-stakes, serious jobs? And should we be worried about the future of our own jobs?

🖥️ What else is happening in tech?

Who let these bozos go to a conference?

Ep 114: Let the game come to you

Rob, JP, and Dillon recap their time at a CS conference.

Watch on Youtube →

Let’s dish 🤭

who wants a time machine?

Just a little existential crisis, NBD.

Reddit is fun for conspiracy theories, memes, and questioning all of your life choices!

User Dr_DingleBerri3s asked a terrifying (and super real) question in r/sales that’ll really get you thinking:

The answers are fun and interesting and totally worth a read. Some of our faves:

  • I want to not have to talk anymore

  • No, I don’t think I’d be good at much else. Although I struggled my first 8 years in sales, it led me to where I am now, where I make the same as some doctors. And I enjoy what I do very much. So no reason to change for me.

  • Back in time? I’m 31 and applying to MBA programs right now to change my career, despite an income of $115k/yr.

  • Something where my income isn’t based and different peoples buying decisions.

What do you think — if you could go back in time, would you try to do something different?

🫖 What's the tea?

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