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Businesses Microsoft AI

You'll Soon Manage a Team of AI Agents, Says Microsoft's Work Trend Report (zdnet.com) 56

Posted by BeauHD from the ready-or-not-here-they-come dept.
ZipNada shares a report from ZDNet: Microsoft's latest research identifies a new type of organization known as the Frontier Firm, where on-demand intelligence requirements are managed by hybrid teams of AI agents and humans. The report identified real productivity gains from implementing AI into organizations, with one of the biggest being filling the capacity gap -- as many as 80% of the global workforce, both employees and leaders, report having too much work to do, but not enough time or energy to do it. ... According to the report, business leaders need to separate knowledge workers from knowledge work, acknowledging that humans who can complete higher-level tasks, such as creativity and judgment, should not be stuck answering emails. Rather, in the same way working professionals say they send emails or create pivot tables, soon they will be able to say they create and manage agents -- and Frontier Firms are showing the potential possibilities of this approach. ... "Everyone will need to manage agents," said Cambron. "I think it's exciting to me to think that, you know, with agents, every early-career person will be able to experience management from day one, from their first job."

You'll Soon Manage a Team of AI Agents, Says Microsoft's Work Trend Report More | Reply

You'll Soon Manage a Team of AI Agents, Says Microsoft's Work Trend Report

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  • "...experience management from day one" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @09:01PM (#65329249)

    will be able to experience management from day one

    Munch's TheScream.jpg

    Having managed twice before, I'd rather stick red hot pokers in my eyes.

    I fear for the future worker. Sounds worse than The Matrix and Office Space combined.

    • Re:"...experience management from day one" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @09:05PM (#65329261)
      "Managing" AI agents would be nothing like managing a team of humans. They're pulling out all the stops to try to pump the AI dream because they have so much money invested into it at this point.

      • "Managing" AI agents would be nothing like managing a team of humans. They're pulling out all the stops to try to pump the AI dream because they have so much money invested into it at this point.

        I keep say, this AI shit is alot like crypto, the only people who want it are the people with a stake in profiting from it. It's a solution to a problem that does not exist.

        • I keep say, this AI shit is alot like crypto, the only people who want it are the people with a stake in profiting from it.

          Isn't that true of pretty much everything?

          "Profit" isn't always measured in dollars and cents. For example, it can also be defined in terms of pleasure, or enjoyment. If you engage in some activity, any activity, and you like doing so, you're making a profit (measured in terms of happiness). If you don't like that activity, you're enduring a loss (of your time and energy, which could be spent on something you enjoy).

          • Economics calls that "utility," how much happiness or satisfaction one gets from consuming a product or doing something.

    • You beat me to it - I have that same quote in my clipboard just ready to paste into a comment.

      My take was to point out the blindness, narcissism, and sheer fucking arrogance of the belief that everyone aspires to be a manager. Not to mention the implication that anyone who's not some kind of manager is socially and/or intellectually inferior.

      Am I reading too much into that "exciting to experience management" line? Maybe, but I doubt it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Indeed. "Managers" are generally a problem and the reason why people with actual skills cannot get stuff done. Obviously, almost everybody that likes doing it is into the "power over others" aspect, not into getting things done. People that are not assholes much prefer to solve real problems instead of creating them.

      • Framing it as "everyone gets to be a manager" sounds less on-the-nose dystopian than "you get to fire all the workers".

        It caters to the mental retreat from reality that business owners are already so good at. The C-level physically and mentally surround themselves with other managers. Put the workers on a different floor, in a different building, or in a different country. Make sure none of them can get promoted to the managers' club, either. The goal is to be as out-of-touch with the work as possible.

        Needl

    • "Having too much work and not enough time to do it" is not some happenstance artifact of our current state of technology, and it absolutely will not be "solved" by having teams of AI agents.

      This state is deliberately manufactured by leadership, who deliberately assign deadlines that are unreasonably short. This is their way of getting the most out of their employees. Overwork them! Any employee who has plenty of time to get all their work done obviously has too little work to do, so assign more. DUH!

      So,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Becoming a manager when you could be somebody with actual skills and insights is the ultimate sign of defeat...

      • Different skill set. I loathe managing. My manager doesn't like turning wrenches. But, this one listens to their people, and if we say "This is retarded, this is a really poor decision team x is making," they will absolutely be the tip of the spear and if possible, kill it.

        A rare thing, this one.

        Now.. I've had the other kind, the kind you're talking about. They manage because they can't wrench. Not won't, -- can't. Maybe they're the kind that strips screws (no mechanical sensibility) and thinks lates

  • Managers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by silvergig ( 7651900 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @09:11PM (#65329271)
    Good Lord.....so a completely new person that doesn't know jack shit about the workplace or their new career, is going to be 'managing'.

    I didn't even need to read the rest of the AI drivel. That was enough right there to show was a dumbass idea this is.

    • Your AI assistants will have been supplied by the workplace and they will know about the business and how it operates. Your entry level job may be to do the equivalent of cleaning the restrooms, but the bots will do the actual work.

      Get used to the idea, this is coming in the near future. All white collar jobs will devolve into managing the bots.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MTEK ( 2826397 )

        All white collar jobs will devolve into managing the bots.

        And one of the threats of AI is human enfeeblement. Pretty sure that's where this is headed.

    • Good Lord.....so a completely new person that doesn't know jack shit about the workplace or their new career, is going to be 'managing'. I didn't even need to read the rest of the AI drivel. That was enough right there to show was a dumbass idea this is.

      From a business perspective, it's brilliant. AI agents do all the actual work, but there's a human "manager" to blame when one of them clustefucks the financial report or the inventory levels or something. Basically, if this scenario could actually be implemented, the humans would still be there to take the upper management beatings, while all actual work will be done by the machines. This is nightmare fuel beyond the "you'll all be out of a job" preaching most of the AI prophets have been spouting. This is

  • Management is the prime target! All suit, all ROI!
  • Or will they have to come into the office like the "manager"?

  • See, for me I manage a team of beautiful gynoids, all fully functional, programmed to service my every need. They then magage an army of androids, each of which has their own army of autonomous AI agents. Sure, each gynoid, android, and autonomous AI agent requires a 50,000 sqm datacenter and enough electricity to power 97,234 homes, but it's totally worth it. Sure, sometimes the gynoids break my arms, and the autonomous AI agents still don't know how many thumbs a human hand has, and they're very rarely fa

  • We're now up to words so meaningless customers can't even guess what they're supposed to be. What's an "AI Agent' Mark from Marketing, do you have an engineer that can explain? Can you explain? Are the "AI Agents" in the room with us?

  • .. Microsoft.

  • Someone who says "humans who can complete higher-level tasks, such as creativity and judgment, should not be stuck answering emails" is definitely someone you'd want to have to communicate with.

    From the unfortunate occasions when I've been forced to try to talk to them; I'm pretty sure that Redmond has already culled anyone meeting this description from public-facing communication.

  • I'm a software developer. Part of AI is like if I had 200 interns working for me -- some of them smarter than me and already more knowledgeable about some areas, some of them not, none of them familiar with my team's codebase. There are real cases where I could get those 200 interns to do real useful work and would want to! e.g. if I create a very detailed playbook of how to make certain code improvements, ones that wouldn't be worth my time to do myself one-by-one, but if I had 200 interns and an automated

    • I think it's more than just writing technical scripts.

      AI agents are dangerous in human society because 1) they are not rational and cannot follow instructions but only fill in the blanks statistically, and 2) they are immune to punishment for misconduct and legal responsibility.

      The biggest benefit of having a human "manage" a team of "AI agents" is that the human is legally responsible for the "team".

      This is a tried and true solution to issue 2) above: Historically, human beings have managed teams of

    • >> it's like writing a shell-script to manage some bulk process

      I think that's a good analogy. As a programmer you are going to be given a set of objectives that someone is paying you to accomplish. You will have a team of virtual assistants that will handle most of the grunt work, but you'll have to be able to tell them what to do. Figure out what to tell them and be able to evaluate the results for satisfaction will be your job as the manager.

      It doesn't sound bad to me. It could be a lot easier than

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      it's like writing a shell-script to manage some bulk process.

      Indeed. And now consider how many people can write shell-scripts competently....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Guignol ( 159087 )
        And somehow pushing millions of code of C, C++, whatever, to build a complete project is so mundane it will be handled perfectly well by a 'team' of 200 AI agents (I still fail to see how 200 agents in a box are different than 1 ('better') agent in the same box btw) but...
        That perl script / prompt generator to manage them.. no way
        Too complicated ? no way it would be handled by some AI ? hmm...

      • Indeed. And now consider how many people can write shell-scripts competently....

        Ugh, now I'm thinking about systemd. Thanks.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

          ^^^THIS^^^

          All of this.

          I'm picturing management/hiring thinking anyone can do "A. I." and will be slotting people in who don't understand business logic, much less coding practices required for ongoing 'expert systems'.

          Will be a total shit-show when something breaks or changes need to be made due to business needs.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Will be a total shit-show when something breaks or changes need to be made due to business needs.

            Hahaha, indeed. I think we will see some really spectacular business failures in the next years.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Urgh, now I am doing so too. Even when none of my Linux installation uses that PoS.

  • Why not create an agent to manage your other agents?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

      It's agents, all the way down.

      Which is what every tech CEO is slavering for; electronic slaves and no pesky labor costs. Just 10,000 rich men running the world from the golf course or bedroom.

  • No (Score:2)

    by vbdasc ( 146051 )

    I expect that managing a team of goats would be more enjoyable... and more productive. This seems to be our future, anyway.

  • For goddamned contemporary AI to go the way of 3D tvs already. Or fucking VR metaverse bullshit. How do I know the metaverse is dead? My autocorrect doesn't know the word. Let's do shit AI next

  • Sure, fine, whatever, I'm game for it. How much do I get paid for this managing job?

    Gosh, I've never been a manager before.

  • ...in Soviet Russia, AI agents manage YOU!!!!

  • Seriously. And obviously the statement is nonsense.

  • Except they are as big a lion and high on a dose of LSD.
    Good luck with that.

  • Sure, eliminate the costly and unreliable meat bags. Cut costs. Increase profits. But, they fail to mention the very best part of agentic AI. They never mention what an absolute thrill it is to be the consumer of agentic AI.

    I love love love wasting copious amount of my time fruitlessly arguing with an AI agent when I need to reach a company. Talking to people is highly overrated and can be frustrating. But, talking to AI is rewarding and exciting. Even though is circular and pointless I love taking

  • I don't even want to set the time on my VCR. Why would I want to manage AI agents?
  • At this point the only ones prognosticating this AI bot driven future are those trying to sell the bots and/or those trying to fluff up stock value. Costs per bot are 80%-90% of actual bodies. I don't see companies betting their future on armies of non-invested bots. No loyalty, no secrecy, employers have no control over how these bots behave or ability to discipline them for policy breaches, or even be sure the information the bot produce stays within the purview of company IP.

  • In Soviet Russia Team of AI agents will soon manage you!

  • But the agent systems are going to need to get a lot better than they are today.
    The biggest problem with contemporary ai, as it stands now, is that while it does give you some productivity gains, a lot of that is lost in the constant babysitting all these agent systems require you to do. Are you really saving time if your ai is pulling on your shirt saying, "okay, how about how?" every three minutes for your entire work day? They need to get a handle on this.

    Also, there needs to be meaningful change in term

  • "As AI democratizes access to expertise and intelligence"
    AI companies sell access to their LLMs by the mega-token. Just like democracies are bought by corporate funding.

    "It’s a mindset shift. We are hardwired to think about using technology in a certain way—we see a search box and we assume we’re dealing with a search engine. The unlock is when we realize it’s not a tool but a new kind of team member."
    If my professor said "the unlock is when..", I'd walk out of class. The guy that sa

  • This is Microsoft marketing about how great its AI is. They think it will be so capable that it will replace whole divisions of companies.

    As anyone who has actually used AI knows, it's still very, very unreliable. Managing a "team" of AI bots would be kind of like managing a team of high school kids. You spend more time training them, telling them what to do, and correcting poor performance or incorrect work, than you would spend just using a small, capable, less expensive human team.

    AI can be a productivit

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