Not in future. Not in theory. Now.
I recently met a startup founder who told me-Haf-Hu-Hafing, half-serious-he was hiring a “agent manager”.
“The signs are everywhere,” he said. “The tone is closed. The output needs to take care of the child. I need someone to train and track our AI agents so that the team can simply meet with their work.”
We both laughed. But later, I realized: it’s not absurd. it is inevitable.
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For the previous year, we have argued whether AI will replace human workers. But we are remembering the real change under our nose: humans are now managing AI – not only creating it, not only using it, but structuring teams around it, is handing over it, and in many cases, depending on it.
Microsoft’s 2025 work trend reduces the shift: 82% global leaders say AI agents will be deeply embedded in their organizations within the next 12-18 months. One of the four companies has already deployed him on a scale. But what is more than adoption that how unequal this change is.
In one of India’s top five global capacity centers (GCCs), a pilot team recently tested the “human-to-agent ratio”-the employee assessing an agent. Results were coming out. Not only productivity benefits, but deep friction. Some employees hesitated to represent the representative. Others delivered more. Most were not convinced about what the agent was doing behind the curtain. Technology was not a problem. There was a trust.
It is an invisible partition emerging in the workplaces – not among humans and machines, but among those who know how to cooperate with AI and who still detect it.
Microsoft calls major companies “Frontier Firm”. I see something different: Agent-literate organization. The place where managing the colleagues of the digital team is part of the job. Where people are learning that the signal is not about the clever phrase – it is about the structure, tone and cultural nuances. Where performance reviews may soon include a line item for “AI flow”.
It seems ridiculous. Until you realize that this is already happening.
A founder in Pune runs an OPS team of five supported by seven agents. Agents draft emails, generate reports, and pursue vendors.
Humans supervise, move forward, and do course-right. He said, “We are never hiring another ops soon.” “We are hiring someone to train agents.”
It sounds efficient. But here is the part that we do not talk about: not all the people of that team have the same voice as to how those agents are behaved – the person who knows how to speak as an agent sets the tone. Follow the rest. Or be worse than this.
This is why this moment is really.
No “will I take my job?”
But: Who shapes how AI shows at work?
Who trains it, manages it, criticizes it- and who leaves the person who try to work around it?
We are no longer going towards a partition between white collar and blue-collar. That line already disappears. The real division is now between the agent-root and the agent-blind. Those who know how to talk AyeGive it shape, and work for them – and those who do not, or not. This is not just a skill difference. This is a confident difference. A permission interval. And it is growing rapidly.
In every room I have been recently, this is the same thing: some people carry forward conversation with AI, and the rest roam around it quietly.
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Flow power is becoming. Silence is becoming expensive.
Microsoft’s data shows the power gap widening: leaders regularly use AI 25-30% more likely to use AI, rely with important work, and see it as a career accelerator. This is not a skill difference. This is a change in the agency, a quiet revaluation of strength and confidence.
And like every transition in work, it is happening unevenly, the fastest people with the fastest learning, and the rest is favorable in margin.
This is why I believe that the most important challenge of this moment is not just an apocilling. It is creating AI flow with psychological security and creating cultures where people can experiment, can make up, raise questions on the output, and when the machine goes wrong, it can push back.
Because it is not about becoming an early engineer, it is about becoming a reference designer.
It is about knowing when to hand over – and when to catch. When to trust, and when to intervene. Knowing that yes, AI can fulfill your punishment – but it is still your voice on the line.
Founder who horses an agent manager? He may look like a punchline. But he is probably ahead of the curve. Because within five years, there will be an AI layer in every role – and every team will not have space, security or support to adapt in time.
Access is not enough. Adoption is not enough.
What we want is flow. And cultural permission to make it.
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Because the real risk is not that AI takes your job. This is that you are still in the room, but are no longer part of the conversation.
And as long as you notice, the decisions can be made in advance – without your voice, and without your kind of thinking.