The OverheardSeptember 29, 2025via One Useful Thing (Ethan Mollick)

Real AI Agents and Real Work

Why it matters

As AI agents proliferate, organizations must distinguish between automating meaningful work versus creating elaborate presentations, with the future favoring companies that deploy agents for actual productive tasks rather than administrative theater.

Key signals

  • Race between human-centered work and infinite PowerPoints
  • Focus on real AI agent deployment versus presentation-focused implementations

The hook

Everyone is building AI agents. Nobody is talking about the real work they need to do.

The race between human-centered work and infinite PowerPoints
Relevance score:75/100

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