From Chatbots to Teammates: Defining the Class of 2040

AI APPLIED

The most important question facing education today isn’t what AI can do. It’s what our students should still know how to do when AI can do so much.

At our Cold Spring AI Summit this summer, Adam Brotman, co-author of AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and former Starbucks chief digital officer, did more than describe AI agents. He demonstrated what it looks like to work with one in real time.

Brotman’s distinction was simple. A chatbot answers questions. An agent does jobs. He and his business partner, Andy Sack, used an agent named Vera Brown to co-author their new book, Agents, Inc.: How to Rebuild Your Company in the AI Age. Vera synthesized interviews, organized research and drafted the book, helping compress a process that had taken nearly 20 months for their prior book into just three. The two authors still owned every word and decision.