Agency at Work

Author: Mike Hobday 10/25

“Agency” the ability to act independently, make decisions and influence outcomes for self, colleagues or the environment.

The Secret of Agency

Agency in the workplace has been the preserve of humankind.

Are we now seeing a dawn of “synthetic” agency powered by rapidly evolving AI? What does this mean for the future of work, the future for generations experience of personal “agency?”

The secret sauce of mankind’s evolution over the last 2 millennia has been the ability to retain a growing knowledge pool from generation to generation and to use that knowledge without necessarily having to relearn it.

Is the cycle of human knowledge transfer being broken or is it simply knowledge is so vast that it is no longer practical to be the sole preserve of biological mankind? Are recent advances an extension of tools that codify knowledge, or are we now codifying human judgement gained though life and work experience?

Human Agency

The “ouroboros” or “uroboros” is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon eating its own tail.  From ancient Greek and Egyptian tradition it is interpreted as a symbol of life, death and rebirth, the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation.

The ancient symbol of the ouroboros, depicting a serpent eating its own tail, surrounded by Greek text, symbolising the eternal cycle of life and renewal.

Central to our societal development and careers from school to retirement has been the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Each building on the knowledge foundations of the former, innovating, accelerating and exponentially growing the volume of human knowledge and perhaps wisdom?

The Baby Boomers and Millennials witnessed experience, skills, wisdom, and influence developed through inheritance, education and apprenticeship. In careers, roles, responsibilities, expected outcomes, reward setting the scope of “agency” and the path to success.  A career plan, goals, status are judged on one’s own or group success. 

Synthetic Agency (the birth of AI Agents)

Enter the AI Dragon!

2025 marks the dawn of AI agency.  Agency in the workplace will rapidly transition to AI Agents, man will share the workplace not just with convenient productivity enhancing automations but with intelligent software and hardware agents that emulate man in his ability to perceive its environment, reason about it and act autonomously to achieve specific goals, educated by “the previous generation of man.” We are entering the “AI Agent apprenticeship phase”

Experienced, expert, productive and knowledgeable staff over the next few years will educate AI agents to perform elements of their work.  Imparting not just the tasks and rules to follow but the thinking, rationale for the correct execution of work in response to events they may witness - just as a banker might do to a student intern.

We are witnessing a “jigsaw piece” approach to the development of AI Agents over time completing the puzzle necessary to undertake “whole human jobs” semi or fully autonomously.

So, what does this mean for “ouroboros?” The Norse dragon’s tail is now code.  The idea of human apprenticeship, a structured transfer of knowledge to a next generation of warriors or workers, where guiding principles of experience and wisdom are handed down will be increasingly disintermediated by AI Agents.

An ouroboros dragon encircles ancient script, with its tail adorned in binary code, symbolising the fusion of mythology and digital evolution.

The intern is transformed into an AI Agent augmenting senior “experienced colleagues” in pursuit of productivity with real-time access to data, superior analysis and  insight - but without the human expense of it. Where then is our future expert trained? Is it not inevitable that AI and AI Agents increasingly dominate the workplace in the absence of young talent coming through.

If that assertion were correct then the human experience of career; intern, junior assistant, team leader, manager, director will have to evolve and why would an agent not evolve as man has in the workplace?  From intern, to augmenting and supporting experienced colleagues, becoming those experienced colleagues, supervising those experienced colleagues and ultimately directing the companies activities.

Chart illustrating the evolving generational experience in the workplace from 2025 to 2045, showcasing shifts from teaching and augmenting by agents to eventual supervision by agents across different age groups, from Baby Boomers to Generation A.

Business leaders and government policymakers need to think beyond the AI hype and POC phase and recognise that the hybrid workforce of the future is very near and the implcations for governance and workforce planning is now.

Society and future business leaders will face the conundrum of how to develop a sufficient cadre of professionals and business managers where fewer will benefit from the internships and apprenticeships sponsored by governments today to establish a sustainable pool of talent for economic growth.

For graduates and apprentices there is an immediate opportunity in the AI revolution taking place.  For Gen A, soon to go to school, well that needs a crystal ball.

What comes next for the BluZco blog?  Thoughts on the structural change in the workforce.  The relationship of knowledge, experience, wisdom and AI. Is purpose the only AI-proof skill? Leadership accountability and the hybrid workforce.

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M J Hobday

Mike@bluzco.com

10/25

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