As Dreamforce 2024 unfolds, the tech world is abuzz with Marc Benioff’s audacious challenge: develop 1,000 AI agents during the conference using Salesforce’s new Agentforce platform. Benioff, Salesforce’s CEO and co-founder, is betting big on what he calls the “third wave of AI” – autonomous agents capable of making decisions and taking actions without constant human oversight.

At first glance, Agentforce seems like a technological marvel. These AI agents promise to revolutionize customer service, sales, and marketing. They’re supposedly designed to work alongside humans, augmenting their capabilities and freeing them from routine tasks. Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI, paints a picture of harmony between human workers and AI agents, emphasizing that “It’s people with AI — it’s not people versus AI.”

But as we stand on the brink of this AI agent revolution, we must ask ourselves: Are we fully considering the implications of this shift towards autonomous AI and how shareholder-centric leaders will view this technological revolution?

Benioff’s vision is compelling: “Our goal is simple, for you to augment your employees, create better experiences, and deliver better business results for your companies.” It’s a noble aim, one that speaks to the potential of AI to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. Salesforce argues that by handling routine tasks, AI agents can free human workers to focus on more complex, creative, and emotionally intelligent work.

However, the road to technological revolution is often paved with unintended consequences, as idealistic social media pioneers like myself can attest. While Salesforce may have the best intentions, the reality is that many organizations, driven by shareholder pressure and the allure of cost-cutting, may see Agentforce and similar technologies as a means to reduce their human workforce rather than augment it.

In my view, this day and this announcement from Salesforce is where the slippery slope begins. As AI agents become more capable, the temptation to automate more and more jobs will grow. What starts as augmentation could easily slide into replacement, particularly in customer-facing roles like support and service. The risk is not just to individual jobs, but to the very fabric of our economy.

Consider this: if a significant portion of the workforce is displaced by AI agents, who will be left to purchase the products and services these hyper-efficient companies are producing? We could be automating ourselves into a paradox where companies become incredibly efficient at serving a market that can no longer afford their offerings.

This is not to say that we should resist progress or innovation. AI, when implemented thoughtfully and ethically, has the potential to create tremendous value for businesses and society. The key lies in how we envision our future, and how we approach this technology revolution today.

As we delve into the promises and perils of AI agents like Agentforce, we must confront a fundamental question that every organization needs to ask itself:

Is Your Organization Human Centric or Shareholder Centric?

While Salesforce frames Agentforce as a tool for augmentation, the reality is that many organizations will see it as a means to aggressive automation. This isn’t just about Salesforce and its customers – it’s about a critical choice facing every company in this AI-driven era: Will they prioritize a human-centric approach, or will they pursue a shareholder-centric strategy focused solely on short-term efficiency and profitability?

This choice isn’t merely philosophical – it has profound implications for our economic future. The allure of AI-driven efficiency is strong, especially for organizations fixated on quarterly results and stock prices. But we must confront an uncomfortable truth: this race to automate, if driven purely by shareholder interests, could lead to a potential economic and social catastrophe.

The human-centric alternative isn’t about resisting progress. It’s about harnessing AI’s potential to augment human capabilities, create new opportunities, and build a more sustainable economic future. It’s about recognizing that our employees are not just costs to be minimized, but assets to be developed and empowered. As I wrote recently, it is about how we choose to invest our productivity dividend from AI. It is about whether we choose to invest in the growth and development of our employees and the optimization of our operations through reflection and refinement, or invest in stock buybacks and increased wealth for shareholders.

To truly understand the stakes, we need to examine the forces driving this automation push and the potentially shortsighted thinking behind it. We need to ask ourselves: Is our organization human-centric or shareholder-centric? What are the long-term consequences of that choice? And which way do we want to go to create a better future for our children and grandchildren?

The Shortsightedness of Shareholder-Centric Automation

Our current market is still led by late-stage capitalist thinking, and the driving force behind most corporate decisions is shareholder value. Reduce costs, increase profits, boost that stock price. It’s a mantra that’s been drilled into every MBA and C-suite executive for decades. And on the surface, widespread AI automation seems to serve this goal perfectly. Lower labor costs, increased efficiency, 24/7 operations without all those pesky human needs getting in the way.

But here’s the rub: this model will eat itself alive.

When we automate away jobs en masse, we’re not just affecting those individual workers. We’re reducing the purchasing power of a significant portion of the population. We’re potentially shrinking our own customer base. It’s as if we’ve forgotten the lessons of Henry Ford, who famously paid his workers enough to afford the very cars they were building. Ford understood a fundamental truth that today’s shareholder-obsessed executives seem to have forgotten: workers are also consumers. And consumers drive the economy.

The Argument for Full Automation and Autonomy of Agents

There certainly are loud voices calling for full automation and the autonomy of AI agents to increase profitability. We cannot simply ignore this reality. Proponents of this approach often present compelling cases that, on the surface, seem to align with the goals of efficiency, competitiveness, and progress. However, at the Team Flow Institute, we believe these arguments often overlook crucial factors that are essential for long-term business sustainability and societal well-being.

One of the primary arguments for full automation is the need for companies to remain competitive in a global market. In an era where efficiency can make or break a business, the allure of AI systems that can operate 24/7 without breaks, sick days, or human error is undeniably strong. Advocates argue that companies that fail to fully embrace automation will be left behind, unable to match the speed and cost-effectiveness of their AI-driven competitors.

While we acknowledge the importance of competitiveness, we contend that a human-centric approach to AI can actually provide a stronger competitive advantage. By augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them, companies can offer superior customer experiences that blend the efficiency of AI with the empathy, creativity, and adaptability of human workers. This approach allows businesses to not only keep pace with market demands but also to innovate and respond to changes in ways that fully automated systems cannot.

Another common argument for full automation is the inevitability of job displacement by AI. Proponents suggest that rather than trying to preserve current roles, we should focus our efforts on retraining the workforce for new types of jobs that will emerge in an AI-driven economy. They paint a picture of a future where routine tasks are handled by AI, freeing humans to engage in more creative and fulfilling work.

While we agree that ongoing training and skill development are crucial, we believe that a human-centric approach to AI implementation can create a more gradual and manageable transition. By focusing on augmenting human capabilities rather than wholesale autonomous replacement, we can create new roles and enhance existing ones. This approach not only helps preserve economic stability but also allows for the retention of valuable institutional knowledge and skills that might otherwise be lost in a rapid transition to full automation.

Perhaps the most technically compelling argument for full automation is the superior decision-making capabilities of AI in many scenarios. Advocates point to AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and make decisions free from human biases and fatigue. They argue that in many cases, especially in data-driven fields, AI can consistently outperform humans, leading to better outcomes and increased efficiency.

While we recognize AI’s impressive capabilities in data processing and pattern recognition, we maintain that human judgment remains crucial for complex decision-making. This is especially true in situations requiring empathy, ethical considerations, or creative problem-solving. AI, for all its power, lacks the nuanced understanding of context, the ability to navigate ambiguity, and the capacity for moral reasoning that humans possess. By keeping humans in the loop, we ensure that these critical elements are not lost in the pursuit of efficiency.

At the Team Flow Institute, we believe that the future lies not in full automation, but in effective human-AI collaboration. Our approach recognizes the strengths of both AI and human workers and seeks to create systems where they complement each other. This not only leads to better outcomes for businesses but also helps maintain a healthy economy where workers continue to have meaningful roles and consumers have the means to participate in the market.

As we move forward in this AI revolution, it’s crucial that we critically examine the arguments for full automation and autonomy of agents. While the promises of efficiency and competitiveness are alluring, we must also consider the broader implications for our workforce, our economy, and our society as a whole. By adopting a human-centric approach to AI implementation, we can harness the power of technology while preserving the human elements that are essential for long-term success and societal well-being.

The Human-Centric Alternative: AI as Augmentation, Not Replacement

At the Team Flow Institute, we propose a different path. Instead of viewing AI as a replacement for human workers, we need to design AI systems that augment and empower human capabilities. We call this Human to Human AI Design (#HHAI), and it’s about leveraging technology to make us better at working with each other, not to replace us with technology.

As Salesforce aptly suggests, in this model, AI handles routine tasks, processes data, and provides insights, freeing up humans to focus on what they do best: creative problem-solving, empathetic communication, and building genuine relationships. As Clara Shih said, It’s not about human OR machine, but human AND machine, “working in harmony.”

However, the call to build 1,000 agents during Dreamforce 2024, trained on the golden records of large enterprises, risks sending a dangerous message: that this transformation is cheap, easy and something leaders must do right now. We are concerned that many executives may misinterpret these bold marketing statements, seeing it as an opportunity to entirely remove a cost center from their balance sheets. This is precisely why we’ve been advancing the notion that simply adding AI to business as usual will ultimately lead to organizational collapse. To avoid this fate, we must first envision and work toward “business as possible”, unlocking the full potential of human work in the AI era to deliver both profit and societal benefit.

As we look more closely at customer service this week during Dreamforce, this is a particularly important consideration. Perhaps how Benioff is framing his autonomous agents for augmenting employees capabilities really does address my concerns and we merely have a semantic misunderstanding. However, the description of a fully autonomous decision-making agent we’ve heard from Salesforce is not the same as one that augments the capabilities of human agents where the human remains in control, bringing emotional intelligence, cultural understanding, and creative thinking to each interaction and every decision.

This approach doesn’t just preserve jobs – it enhances them. It allows companies to provide better service, build stronger customer relationships, and yes, even improve efficiency. But it does so without sacrificing the human element that’s crucial for long-term business success.

Perhaps this is the vision that these bold statements from Dreamforce are aiming to achieve, despite the very real potential for many leaders misinterpreting it as the first steps towards cutting costs by cutting staff. As a result, we are urging deeper consideration of the implications of such investments. We are advocating that executives invest in achieving more clarity for the future vision of their organizations before pursuing short term gains.

Building a Sustainable Future with Human-Centric AI

Adopting a human-centric approach to AI isn’t just about altruism – it’s about long-term business sustainability. By preserving and enhancing human roles, companies ensure they’re maintaining and growing their customer base. They’re investing in the very people who drive demand for their products and services.

This approach also fosters innovation, particularly if leadership values its most valuable assets. When humans and AI work together, with AI handling routine tasks and humans focusing on creative problem-solving, we create an environment ripe for breakthrough ideas and improved pathways to customer satisfaction. We maintain the diversity of thought and experience that’s crucial for adapting to new challenges and identifying new opportunities.

Moreover, a human-centric approach to AI can actually create new jobs. Missing so far from the headlines out of Dreamforce as we develop more sophisticated AI systems, we need people to design, implement, and manage these systems. We’ll need experts who can bridge the gap between human needs and AI capabilities. We’ll need ethicists, trainers, and interpreters who can ensure AI systems are being used responsibly and effectively. That sort of mindset and those capabilities are not typically found in Salesforce developers in my experience, but perhaps they could be with retraining and new skills development.

The Choice We Face

As we stand on the brink of widespread enterprise AI adoption and an entirely new future of work, we face a critical choice. We can continue down the path of shareholder-centric automation, potentially automating ourselves into an economic and organizational crisis. Or we can choose a human-centric approach that uses AI to augment and empower human workers, creating a more sustainable and prosperous future for all.

The irony is that by focusing too narrowly on shareholder value, companies may end up destroying long-term shareholder value. A company that has automated away its workforce with fully autonomous agents who make decisions may look great on paper for a few quarters, but what happens when there’s no one left to buy its products? What happens when there is no human in the loop to judge the appropriateness of the decisions being made rather than just the cost savings the decisions achieve?

On the other hand, companies that adopt a human-centric approach to AI stand to gain in the long run. They’ll build stronger relationships with customers, foster innovation, and contribute to a healthy economy that can sustain demand for their products and services.

A Call to Action

It’s time for business leaders to look beyond the next quarter’s results and consider the long-term implications of their AI strategies and move to embrace #BusinessAsPossible. It’s time to reject the false dichotomy of humans versus machines and embrace a future where AI augments human work instead of replacing it.

To the CEOs, CTOs, and boardrooms considering replacing your employees with fully autonomous agents: I challenge you to think bigger. Don’t just ask how AI can cut costs. Ask how it can empower your human workforce to provide better products and services. Ask how it can create an expansion of customer value creation. Ask how it can help create new jobs and new markets, not just eliminate existing ones.

To the policymakers and regulators: We need frameworks that encourage responsible AI adoption. This means incentivizing companies that use AI to augment rather than replace human workers. It means investing in education and training programs that prepare workers for a future where human-AI collaboration is the norm.

And to everyone reading this: Demand better from the companies you buy from and work for. Support businesses that value their human workforce. Invest in your own skills to complement AI capabilities.

The AI revolution doesn’t have to cost us our jobs, our economic stability, or our humanity. With a human-centric approach, AI can be a tool for empowerment, not replacement. It can help us create a future with more meaningful work, stronger communities, and sustainable prosperity.

The choice is ours. Let’s choose wisely.

Agentforce Research Notes from Perplexity