Meet your new AI workplace companion

Will 2025 be the year AI assists humans at work? NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang recently laid out a vision of a world where AI agents are ubiquitous during his keynote at GTC. He predicted that by the end of the decade, there could be a shortage of human laborers, with robots potentially earning $50,000 annually.

Startups Leading the Charge

Companies like Figure, Amazon, and Tesla are working on home robots, while startups like Roam are creating virtual HQs for human and AI workforces. Artisan, another startup, builds AI virtual employees for outbound processes. Their controversial ads in San Francisco, urging businesses to "Stop hiring humans", have sparked debate. Artisan recently raised $25 million in Series A funding.

AI as Colleagues

Humatron AI founder Nikita Ivanov envisions a platform where users can build and hire AI workers. These digital employees will integrate seamlessly into workplaces, appearing in Slack, email, and Zoom. Karen Butner of the IBM Institute for Business Value notes that 60% of executives expect employees to interact with AI assistants by year-end.

The Future of Work

IBM Distinguished Engineer Michael Maximilien predicts AI will handle DevOps and testing in dev teams. While concerns about job displacement persist, Ann Funai, IBM’s CIO, emphasizes that AI is meant to augment humans, not replace them. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also foresees AI agents becoming virtual co-workers, as noted in his blog post.

"AI is one of those unique technologies that has the potential to impact every part of work," says Maximilien. The rapid evolution of AI capabilities makes the future hard to predict, but one thing is clear: AI agents are here to stay.