Artificial intelligence agents are emerging as an instrument of transformation in the workforce, with the potential to replace humans in traditional roles, according to computer scientist Lee Kai-fu, founder and CEO of the Chinese start-up 01.AI.
Advertisement
“The basic unit of a company will evolve from a human being to an AI agent,” Lee said on Thursday at a summit on disruptive technologies hosted by Swiss bank UBS. AI agents are software apps that use AI to autonomously execute tasks and achieve goals on behalf of users.
Lee pointed out that AI agents could operate around the clock, be replicated infinitely, and scale effortlessly – capabilities unmatched by human workers. “If you have a super employee, you can’t replicate [them], right? Human cloning is not legal, but AI agent cloning is perfectly fine, and they will scale,” he said.
“You can completely use agents as Lego blocks,” he said. “So you have a Lego block that’s [human resources], a Lego block that’s legal, a Lego block that is finance, and then a Lego block for customer service, et cetera.”
“Then you can have a huge, giant Lego-created machinery that is your company agent, where the CEO interacts and manages the company, and that’s what [OpenAI CEO] Sam Altman means when he says there will be US$1 billion companies.”
AI agents are widely regarded as the next evolutionary stage of generative AI, with major tech companies – from Google and OpenAI to Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings – actively competing in the space. Alibaba owns the Post.