AI agents at workforce? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's big prediction for 2025

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO has stated that artificial intelligence (AI) agents could join the workforce this year. Altman goes on to dicuss the rapid advancements in AI and how the technology is likely to reshape industries, in a blog post.

According to Altman, as AI companies strive for applications that yield significant returns on their investment in the technology, the first AI agents might begin working for organizations this year. As per Altman's description, AI agents are systems that can function autonomously.

“We believe that in 2025 we may see the first AI agents join the workforce and materially change the output of companies,” Altman wrote on his blog, as he “reflected” on the happenings at OpenAI in the last year.

Microsoft earlier announced the use of AI agents which can carry out tasks autonomously. Consulting firm McKinsey is among the first to adopt this new technology.

As per reports AI agent named "Operator" is set to be launched this month. This follows close behind Microsoft's announcement of Copilot Studio and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 which can carry out tasks such as moving a mouse cursor and typing.

McKinsey is developing an agent to handle new customer inquiries for jobs such as setting up follow-up appointments. According to the consultancy firm's prediction, up to 30 per cent of the hours worked in the US economy might be automated by 2030.

Microsoft's head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman, last year hinted that the company is looking develop agents that can make purchasing decisions. While there were some remarkable demos that were created where the agents carried out transactions independently, there were some "car crash moments" according to the report by The Guardian. Suleyman said that an agent with such capabilities can be expected in the near future.

Altman said OpenAI knows how to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), which he has referred to as "AI systems that are generally smarter than humans."

“We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it,” he wrote. OpenAI is now turning its ambitions towards “superintelligence”.

“We love our current products, but we are here for the glorious future. With superintelligence, we can do anything else,” he wrote.

He went on to say, “Superintelligent tools could massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation well beyond what we are capable of doing on our own, and in turn massively increase abundance and prosperity.”