Writing my first line of code was like unlocking a new superpower. Although the software has undergone significant improvements since then, it is still quite dumb in many aspects.
In the next five years, this will change completely. You won’t have to use different apps for different tasks. You’ll simply tell your device, in everyday language, what you want to do. This type of software — something that responds to natural language and can accomplish many different tasks based on its knowledge of the user — is called an agent. More specifically, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agent.
AI agents: running around and getting things done
AI agents are not bots. Agents are smarter. They’re proactive — capable of making suggestions before you ask for them. They accomplish tasks across applications.
Furthermore, they improve over time because they remember your activities and recognize the intent and patterns in your behaviour. Based on this information, they offer to provide what they think you need, although you will always make the final decision.
AI agents will have a significant impact on democratizing services that are currently too expensive for most people.
They will have a big impact on several areas, namely: health care, education, productivity, and entertainment and shopping.
Health Care
AI is currently playing a key role in healthcare by assisting with administrative tasks. The real shift will come when AI agents can help patients do basic triage, get advice on how to deal with health problems, and decide whether they need to seek treatment or not. Helping patients and healthcare workers will be especially beneficial for people in poor countries, where many don’t get to see a doctor at all.
Mental health care is another example of a service that agents will make available to virtually everyone. By sharing sufficient information with a mental health agent, they can comprehend your life history and relationships. It will be accessible whenever you require it, and it won’t become impatient. With your approval, it is possible for your smartwatch to monitor your physical responses to therapy and suggest when you should see a human therapist.
Education
The software won’t replace teachers, but instead will supplement their work, thus personalizing the work of students and liberating teachers from paperwork and other tasks so they can spend more time on the most important parts of the job.
If agents can capture what makes a tutor effective, they’ll unlock this supplemental instruction for everyone who wants it. The experience will be enriched – with graphics and sound, for instance – and personalized compared to today’s text-based tutors.
Productivity
There are already copilots in this field that can do a lot, such as: turn a written document into a slide deck, answer questions about a spreadsheet using natural language, and summarize email threads while representing each person’s point of view.
AI agents will do even more. Having one will be like having someone who is dedicated to helping you with various tasks and doing them independently if you want.
If you have an idea for a business, an agent will help you write up a business plan, create a presentation for it, and even generate images of what your product might look like.
Plus, companies can provide their staff with AI agents that can be consulted directly and participate in meetings to answer questions.
Entertainment and shopping
Already, AI can help you pick out a new TV and recommend movies, books, shows, and podcasts.
AI agents won’t simply make recommendations; they’ll help you act on them. If you want to buy a camera, you’ll have your agent read all the reviews for you, summarize them, make a recommendation, and place an order for it once you’ve make a decision. And if you don’t know what you’re in the mood for, it will make customized suggestions and then figure out how to play the movie or show you choose.
AI agents as a shock wave in the tech industry
In the computing industry, we refer to platforms as the technologies that apps and services are built on. Android, iOS, and Windows are all platforms. Agents will be the next platform.
Creating a new app or service won’t require knowledge of code or graphic design. You’ll just tell your agent what you want. It will be able to write the code, design the look and the feel of the app, create a logo, and publish the app to an online store.
Agents will affect how we use the software and how it is written. Search sites will be replaced by them as they will be more effective at finding information and summarizing it for you. Many e-commerce sites will be replaced because they will find the best price for you and not be limited to just a few vendors. Similarly, they will replace word processors, spreadsheets, and other productivity apps. Businesses that are currently separated, including search advertising, social networking advertising, shopping, and productivity software, will unite.
The technical challenges ahead for AI agents
Nobody has yet figured out what the data structure for an AI agent will look like. Nevertheless, we are presently observing new methods of storing data, such as vector databases, that could be more advantageous for storing data generated by the machine learning models.
Another question that remains unanswered is the number of agents, people will interact with and how will you interact with your agent.
There are other challenges too. Agents have not yet been able to communicate through a standard protocol. The cost needs to come down, so agents can be affordable for everyone. It’s also crucial to prevent hallucinations, especially in areas like health where accuracy is a top priority.
Privacy and other big questions
As all of this comes together, the issues of online privacy and security will become even more urgent than they already are.
Who owns the data you share with your agent, and how do you ensure that it’s being used appropriately? Can law enforcement use your agent as evidence against you? When will your agent refuse to do something that could be harmful to you or someone else? Who picks the values that are built into agents?
There’s also the question of how much information your agent should share. You don’t want your AI agent sharing your bank details or clinical records with some other agents, people or organizations.
And other issues could affect how we interact with each other. Just think about the impact that having an AI agent dealing with some daily routines and/or tasks involving other people. Clearly, social interactions lose their relevance.
AI Agents: focus on the short to medium-term
AI can mirror or even worsen existing biases, but it can also solve the problems it creates, which could result in cautious optimism for further development instead of a pause.
In the future, humans may be forced to face profound questions about purpose by AI agents. Imagine a scenario where agents become so proficient that everyone doesn’t have to work nearly as much. In the event of a future like that, what would people be doing with their time? Is it worth getting an education when an agent has all the answers? Is it possible to have a safe and thriving society when individuals have a lot of spare time?
Although we haven’t reached that point yet, in the meantime, AI agents are coming. Over the next few years, they will completely alter the way we live our lives, both online and offline.
