AI Agents In Workforce This Year? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Predicts A Major Shift

Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” will “join the workforce” by 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has predicted. In a blog post titled ‘Reflections,' published on January 6, 2025, Altman shared his thoughts on the future of AI and the company's journey towards building artificial general intelligence (AGI).

According to Altman, AI agents capable of making autonomous decisions, setting goals and completing tasks with minimal human involvement were closer than ever. “We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents ‘join the workforce' and materially change the output of companies,” Altman wrote, adding, “AI development has taken many twists and turns and we expect more in the future.”

He expressed confidence that OpenAI was on track to achieve AGI — a system that matches or surpasses human intelligence. “We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it,” he said.

Altman also reflected on the company's achievements and challenges, particularly the tumultuous events of the past two years. He emphasised OpenAI's broader ambitions, stating the company was aiming for superintelligence — AI tools that could outperform human intelligence and accelerate scientific progress. “With superintelligence, we can do anything else,” he said.

OpenAI's ChatGPT has already shown AI's potential, and it was merely the starting point, Altman said, expecting AI to play a key role in creating a future marked by “abundance and prosperity.”

“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,” he wrote.

Altman also touched on the upheaval in late 2023, when he was ousted as CEO through a video call before being reinstated days later. “The whole event was, in my opinion, a big failure of governance by well-meaning people, myself included. Looking back, I certainly wish I had done things differently, and I'd like to believe I'm a better, more thoughtful leader today than I was a year ago,” he stated, reflecting on his growth as a leader through the challenges the company has faced.

According to a Bloomberg report, OpenAI is set to release an AI agent called ‘Operator' this month. The report said that ‘Operator' will automate actions such as coding or travel booking, performing tasks directly on a user's computer.

This comes following announcements from Microsoft with its Copilot Studio and Anthropic's release of the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI model. These tools enable tasks like moving a mouse or typing on a computer.