It seems like just yesterday we were gasping when Chinese AI Kimi first rolled out deploying open-source AI agents straight to the cloud. I looked at it then and felt a bit sad. Today it's not even news anymore — just banal routine. A whole bunch of startups popped up where you can deploy a personal digital golem (like OpenClaw) in literally one click. In the latest Y Combinator batch, at least three projects are built around this single feature.
The level of personal AI assistants has gotten so good (setting aside security, context limits, and token prices) that the world will change dramatically this year. What comes next — only angels know, and even they're probably confused. But I looked out the window at the gloomy sky, reread venture investor Greg Isenberg's predictions, and decided to fantasize, translating them into our very human, very confused language. The result is a roadmap to the new reality.
It looks, frankly, terrifyingly beautiful:
1. Home hackers (Yesterday). Geeks assembling agents on Raspberry Pi from electrical tape and API keys. Everything crashes, sparks, but somehow works.
2. Cloud agents (We are here). Launching a bot takes two clicks in a browser. Even humanities people can handle it.
3. Battle of conductors. OpenAI and Google stop comparing benchmarks. The great battle begins over whose AI is better at managing a swarm of other AIs.
4. Boxed specialists. Ready-made bundles for niches. Buy a "realtor package" and it searches for properties while you contemplate existence.
5. Agent as employee. Bots get real job titles: "researcher," "QA tester." And you get a dashboard where you watch their KPIs.
6. Death of classic software. We stop paying $20/month for an empty CRM that nobody looks at...
7. Pay for outcome. ...and start paying per result. The agent takes its cut for each bug found, piece of code, or closed deal.
8. Digital twin. You get a personal agent-secretary. It knows your pain, your context, your schedule, and runs around apps solving problems while you drink sherry.
9. Parallel internet. (My favorite point). Agent Twitter or Agent Notion appear — spaces with no visual interface at all. Programs silently talk to programs in the infinite void of servers. There's nothing for us there.
10. Local paranoia. Corporations get scared of leaks and move all agents on-prem.
11. Certified agents. Medicine and banks deploy certified bots. Every sneeze and sigh strictly logged for regulators.
12. "3 to 300" companies. The classic startup of the future: 3 rumpled, tired human founders and 300 incorporeal AI agents on staff.
13. Premium for "taste." The most expensive human skill is no longer coding or spreadsheets, but taste, visual literacy, and direction. We just set vectors, machines handle all the toil.
At the speed releases are flying, we'll zoom through half these points by next year's end. So I think I'll go visit an exhibition or watch a strange film. Need to develop my last remaining skill — taste.