Humanity, Meaning and Work in an Agentic Age.

The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past.Edition 273.

Mid Journey response to the prompt..humanity, meaning and work in an agentic age.

From the WSJ

“AI is now a topic of conversation at every meeting of McKinsey’s board, said Bob Sternfels, the firm’s global managing partner. The technology is changing the ways McKinsey works with clients, how it hires and even what projects it takes on.

And McKinsey is rapidly deploying thousands of AI agents. Those bots now assist consultants in building PowerPoint decks, taking notes and summing up interviews and research documents for clients. The most-used bot is one that helps employees write in a classic “McKinsey tone of voice”—language the firm describes as sharp, concise and clear. Another popular agent checks the logic of a consultant’s arguments, verifying the flow of reasoning makes sense.

Sternfels said he sees a day in the not-too-distant future when McKinsey has one AI agent for every human it employs.

“We’re going to continue to hire, but we’re also going to continue to build agents,” he said.

Already, the shape of the company is shifting. The firm has reduced its head count from about 45,000 people in 2023 to 40,000 through layoffs and attrition, in part to correct for an aggressive pandemic hiring spree. It has since also rolled out roughly 12,000 AI agents.”

And from CNBC

“This week, Amazon announced it had begun a reorganization that would result in the elimination of 14,000 roles — and said AI was a leading cause.

“The world is changing quickly,” Amazon Senior Vice President Beth Galetti wrote Tuesday. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.”

Walmart recently signaled that it intends to keep headcount flat over the next several years, largely as a result of AI.

Goldman Sachs announced a fresh round of layoffs this month, saying it planned to reduce human roles that AI could potentially perform.

Salesforce recently reduced its workforce by 4,000, citing “the benefits and efficiencies” of AI.

These are highly-profitable, fast-growing, world-class, expertly-led firms.

There is a great debate on whether these layoffs are due to AI, or over-hiring, or flattening of organizations, but there is no doubt that most companies have swiveled from vanity metrics of number of employees to a new key metric which is revenue per employee. And in most companies employees who leave are often not replaced by other employees but rather their jobs are eliminated or substituted by an AI Agent. “

This according to CNBC despite some misgivings as to whether AI is actually delivering ROI:

“Out of 1,250 firms surveyed by Boston Consulting Group for a September report, 60% said they had seen “minimal revenue and cost gains despite substantial investment” in AI.

Only 10% of the organizations involved in a similar Deloitte survey said they were getting “significant return on investment from agentic AI,” or systems that can make decisions beyond simply following prompts”

What happens when our jobs get replaced by agents or we soon find ourselves with more agentic co-workers than human co-workers? What happens when our incomes get reduced or eliminated or let us say we get some sort of basic universal income and told to stay at home ( a hysterically delusional rant when the current system struggles to fund basic health care to millions who are employed!)

Over the past few weeks I have spoken with dozens of leaders and experts around the world in various areas including AI and in all this noise there are some clear signals though exactly how all of this will play out is anybody’s guess. Things are too fluid, moving too fast and too early for anyone to say they really know how things will unfold, but there seems to be some broad agreement that it is likely that:

a) We may have passed peak jobs as jobs and work gets uncoupled. There may be more opportunities for work but fewer full time jobs.

b) Most companies are struggling to move from a “job/experience focussed” mindset to a “work to be done/expertise approach.”

c) HR and Talent departments will be critical to transformation because most of the challenges are organizational and human and not about technology.

d) Still too many companies are using AI like they might use electricity to make candles more efficiently and effectively, versus realizing that like the advent of electricity the very work of the firm, the organization and the competitive set are all going to be dramatically different. Stop making candles since there will soon be no need for them in an age of electricity. This is a change of the system problem versus making the existing system more efficient problem.

e) A generational shift in expectations and mindsets is causing a rupture between what the senior managers and Board of a company believe and what the next generation of talent believes, expects, sees and experiences. This shift is being accelerated by AI which is reducing the value of knowledge and experience but raising the value of learning and unlearning.

f) Unsaid but not far from peoples’ minds are questions of meaning, purpose and role of humans and our own future. Many people are wondering whether they are building and training the wood chip machine that they will be put into. Most are realizing that we need to upgrade our skills, build our networks, manage our balance sheet so we have options and not depend on our company. We are headcount in a highly competitive client focussed profit maximizing enterprise and not members of a “family.”

Four conversations that prepare us for whatever might come.

Whether you are graduating from school or in the final decade of your career, whether you are self-employed person or the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, whether you are parent or not, whether you understand and care about technology or not, one way to prepare for the future is to learn from from four conversations filled with usable insights and ideas.

My guests were in Chicago, London, Dubai and Cape Town South Africa. They are a distinguished engineer, a best selling strategist, a mother of GenZ kids and a 25 year old. Wide spectrum thinking with specific next steps, tactics and approaches that give you actionable inspiration for the coming wild and potentially wonderful age…

They are all free to listen to and free of any advertising or promotion. Just a gift…( the links below are for Apple podcast but you can find them on Spotify and YouTube)

Conversation 1: Humanity, Humans and Meaning in the Agentic Workplace.

Omar Imtiaz, Distinguished Enterprise Architect at Salesforce on the transformative impact of AI on human work. With a background of decades in computer science and IT, Omar argues the importance of the shift from technology-driven to human-centered transformation with AI enhancing human capabilities rather than replacing them. Advocating for a collaborative approach where AI and humans work together, he reminds us that meaning, purpose and emotional engagement is the future of the workplace, unleashing a completely new generation of creativity.

But Omar clarifies why this will be difficult and some of the real challenges humans and firms will face. Our conversation touches on “Move 37” , on being “speciest”, why with agentic capabilities companies will not need different specialized departments, and how Salesforce and its Agents jousted with each other…

Omar joins us in his personal capacity. The opinions shared are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Salesforce. Nothing here is confidential, proprietary, or advice; it’s a general discussion of industry topics.

Conversation 2: How is AI reshaping who holds power in the knowledge economy?

Sangeet Paul Choudary, the best-selling author of Platform Revolution and Reshuffle explains how artificial intelligence is re-stacking the way knowledge is created, distributed, and monetized, and what this means for workers, companies, and the future of competitive advantage.

Just listen to him explain how AI is like the Container Ship and you will see and understand more about AI in 10 minutes that you might have before. We discuss why individuals need to and can do to stay above the algorithm. Why despite all the technology that can replace them, Radiologists and Sommeliers continue to thrive and how we can all future proof our careers by learning from them.

His book Reshuffle is the one I am recommending to every Board and leader and once they read it they often ask to speak to Sangeet. Take a listen and you will in 40 minutes be better qualified on strategy and career thriving in an AI Age than most people who keynote at conferences on these topics…

Conversation 3: Alex McCann on the The Death of the Corporate Job.

Alex McCann is a writer, community builder, and founder of TrueNorth, an AI-powered career coach designed to help people build meaningful careers by starting with self-discovery, not job titlesWhat if the corporate job is no longer the default path to a meaningful career? Alex McCann, founder of TrueNorth, explains why so many young professionals feel lost at work, how Gen Z is redefining success, and why the future may belong to those who start with self-discovery instead of job titles.

Through TrueNorth, his MidWeek events in London, and his newsletter Still Wandering, Alex helps people in their 20s and 30s navigate uncertainty, question outdated career narratives, and define success on their own terms. His work is grounded in a simple belief: you can’t build a fulfilling career until you understand what meaning means to you. Alex now focuses on giving Gen Z and Millennials the tools, language, and community to design lives and work they can truly stand behind.

Conversation 4: Jillian Reilly on the courage to choose yourself.

Jillian Reilly is a founder, author of The Ten Permissions , mother of two GenZ boys and keynote speaker. Having spent her 30-year career working in social, organizational, and individual change across Africa, Asia, and Central Europe, Jillian’s focus is on helping people unlock their ability to navigate change and accelerate growth and learning. Jillian’s upcoming book, The Ten Permissions, guides readers in permitting themselves to update how they operate in the 21st century and design lives that fully leverage the possibilities of this disruptive world.

In our conversation one will learn why each of us need to unleash, unhook and unfurl ourselves from a system of expectations, measures and approval that holds us down. Jillian shows us what we need to leave behind to thrive in the world we are moving to. Change begins with each of us and Jillian shares what we need to do. Listen and you will come away different and see your obstacles disappear and learn to rethink your beliefs in a new light.

A range of free resources to prepare for next here: https://rethinking-work.io/