Preface

Thrilling—the one word we use to describe the possibilities and eventualities that generative AI (GenAI) and agents will enable. From the boiler room to the board room, we think GenAI will truly impact every industry. As technologists, this level of excitement comes about only once, maybe every other decade, and this is why more and more, every day, the possibilities of GenAI are being recognized by people all over the world. Indeed, GenAI has the promise of a revolution, but this one will affect the high-status brainwork that the Industrial Revolution never touched.

As many know, Steve Jobs dropped out of college and went on to lead one of the most successful companies in the history of the world. Many know Jobs loved simplistic elegance and the beauty of things (like fonts on which he spent a great deal of time studying), and you can see that in Apple’s products to this very day. Many don’t know he was also fascinated with the efficiency of locomotion. He took particular interest in a study that looked at the least amount of energy a species would use to race one kilometer (0.62 miles). It might surprise you (it surprised us) to note that the winner in this category was a condor! Humans? About one-third down the list. But when humankind got on a bicycle, they blew everyone off the efficiency charts. He concluded that humankind could build tools (computers then, and now GenAI and agents) that can make us better—while other species must adapt (which takes a long time, ...