The AI Agentic Revolution… and the end of work as we know it
- Frederic Etiemble
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Every once in a while, the rules of work change. Quietly at first. Then all at once.
If you’ve felt like your habits, tools, or even your role are being redefined lately… you’re not imagining it. If you’ve felt like the way you work is different from some of your colleagues… you’re not imagining it.
We’re currently living through the AI Agentic Revolution; a shift from doing the work, to briefing the AI agents that do it for you.
This shift happens in 4 steps and creates 4 distinct worlds of work. It is highly unlikely that we are all living in the same one, hence the fundamental differences lately in how people approach their work.
Let me walk you through it. Here’s the map:
1. The Old World
“When you had something to do, the general rule was Figure It Out”
In the time before ChatGPT - let’s call it “BC” (Before ChatGPT) - the way we worked was simple. You had a task, so you figured it out. Maybe you already knew how to do it. Maybe you searched Google. Maybe you asked a colleague. But either way, the work came back to you in the end.
The tools were informational, not operational. They helped you learn, not do the work. Even when you Googled something, you still had to click, read, compare, decide, and then do the thing.
This was the era of the DIY worker, supported by search engines and collective knowledge, but with the human worker still at the centre of the effort.
In that world, you have to know why you need to do the task, how to do it, and most importantly, you still have to do it.
2. The World of AI Assistants (2022)
“When you have something to do, the rule becomes Ask ChatGPT”
Then came the first disruption. Late 2022. The release of ChatGPT.
Suddenly, instead of searching, we asked. And ChatGPT didn’t just tell us how to do something, it often just did it.
Write an email.
Summarise a paper.
Translate a paragraph.
Fix a piece of code.
Suddenly we all had an assistant and this was the beginning of a new behaviour. You had something to do? You asked the AI Assistant to do it. And often, that was enough.
Millions of knowledge workers shifted overnight from doing the task to typing a prompt.
Of course, the AI Assistant still couldn’t do many of the tasks that made up our daily work. But when it couldn’t do the task, it would always be able to map out for us how to do it.
And slowly, search engines started to feel… slower. Older. Less helpful. The age of the assisted worker had begun.
In that world, you have to know why you need to do the task, you don’t necessarily need to know how to do it, but often you still have to do it in the end.
3. The World of AI Agents (Now)
“When you have something to do, now you just ask an agent to do it for you”
Today, the rules governing how we work have changed again. You no longer ask one big general-purpose AI assistant to do everything. You delegate the task to a specialist agent.
A design agent to build your PowerPoint deck
A research agent to analyse market data
A legal agent to review contracts
A pricing agent to model financials
You don’t need to guide the work step by step. You just clarify the goal, pick the right agent, and let it run. I do this every day.
I have a meeting summariser that lets me chat with past meetings. An image agent that edits my keynote photos without me needing to touch my mouse. A learning agent that turns dense strategy papers into podcasts I listen to on the go and then can join to ask precise questions.
This is not productivity software. This is invisible labour.
And the more I delegate, the more I realise that my role is no longer to do the work. My role is to design the system of agents that gets the work done.
The world of the agents’ leader has begun. In this world, you still have to know why you need to do the task, but you no longer need to know how to do it, nor do you have to do it.
4. The World of Connected Agents (Very Soon)
“Soon you’ll have lots of connected agents working for you on bigger tasks”
The next frontier is almost here. It’s already visible. And it will be here faster than we expect.
In this next world, you don’t just work with individual agents. You brief your AI Chief of Staff, and it coordinates a team of agents on your behalf.
Do you have a complex client proposal to write? You set the objective. Your Chief of Staff activates all agents needed:
One for research
One for writing
One for slide design
One for pricing
One for quality & compliance
They collaborate. Share context. Resolve overlaps. Produce the output.
Your role? Define the goal. Review the outcome.
No email chains. No meetings. No coordination headaches. No blatant oversight of a key requirement. No panic attacks a few hours before the submission deadline.
In this world, you don’t even need to know why all tasks need to be done, let alone know how to do them or actually do them. You don’t even care. You just set the overall objective and someone else determines what the required tasks are.
This is not assistance. This is orchestration.
Which world are you working in?
Are you still Googling everything? Still trying to figure it all out on your own? Still juggling every task instead of delegating?
Because while you’re doing that, others are
Delegating to invisible teams of AI agents
Designing workflows that run 24/7
Reclaiming their time to focus on strategy, leadership, creativity
The AI Agentic Revolution isn’t coming. It’s already here. And it’s the end of work as we know it, whether we like it or not.
The only question is: which world of work are you working in?
Reach out if you would like to chat about our experience of working in this new world, or share some of your own observations... we would love to hear from you!
About Fred
Executive advisor on strategy and innovation. Co-author of The Invincible Company, a guide to building resilience in organizations through corporate innovation. The book was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Strategy Award in 2021.
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