On a typical day at the AI startup Anything, co‑founder Dhruv Amin communicates not only with human colleagues but with a roster of software agents that carry names and discrete responsibilities. He might ask Gwen to schedule a meeting, troubleshoot code with Cody, query Betsy about search engine optimisation, guide a new customer through onboarding with Juno, or tell Justin to restock the snack cupboard —all of them software, not people. Anything employs roughly 15 humans and, Amin says, about 150 agents.
These agents are designed to act with some degree of autonomy, executing tasks end‑to‑end without continuous human input. Startups building such systems envisage workflows in which AI handles roles traditionally performed by humans — from executive assistants and chiefs of staff to sales, marketing and coding partners — allowing companies to scale activity while keeping head counts low.
Proponents argue the approach can increase efficiency and reduce routine work for human staff. Firms marketing these products often frame them as productivity multipliers that let small teams accomplish more. Investors and early adopters are betting that semi‑autonomous agents will become a common feature of future workplaces across a range of industries.
But the shift is not without tension. Turning core functions over to software raises practical questions about reliability, quality control and who is responsible when an agent makes an error. It also stokes concern among employees about changing roles and potential job displacement, as companies highlight doing more with less. Those dynamics are reshaping workplace interactions and creating new management challenges as organisations test how best to integrate, supervise and trust AI coworkers.
As startups continue to iterate on agent architectures and businesses experiment with deployment models, the debate is moving beyond technical capabilities to encompass workplace norms, legal liability and labour implications. For now, companies such as Anything are serving as live experiments in how human teams and AI agents can coexist — and how that balance will affect the future of work remains unsettled.