Real AI Agents and Real Work

Ethan Mollick examines the gap between AI agents' technical capabilities and their actual deployment in real business contexts. The article frames a central tension: while AI agents can genuinely automate complex workflows and reduce busywork, many organizations risk using them simply to produce more output rather than fundamentally transform how work gets done.

Mollick argues that true AI agent adoption requires moving beyond incremental efficiency gains toward reimagining work itself. Rather than automating existing processes, forward-thinking organizations are discovering how agents can eliminate entire categories of low-value work—freeing teams to focus on strategy, creativity, and human judgment. The article challenges the prevailing "PowerPoint culture" where organizations optimize for presentations and reports rather than actual outcomes.

For professionals evaluating AI agents, Mollick emphasizes that implementation success depends on clear intent: Are you using agents to work smarter on the same problems, or are you willing to fundamentally redesign how your team operates? The distinction matters because agents are most valuable when they handle routine tasks completely, not when they simply speed up existing workflows. This perspective helps non-technical decision-makers understand why some agent implementations deliver transformative results while others become expensive automation of busywork.