The next phase of artificial intelligence at work will not just assist employees — it will run whole parts of the company. That is the argument from Replit's chief executive, who told TechCrunch the future of work is the 'self-driving company.'
The idea borrows its metaphor from autonomous vehicles: just as a self-driving car handles steering, braking and navigation while a human sets the destination, agent-based software would handle the routine operations of a business — drafting, coding, scheduling, support and follow-up — while people concentrate on judgment, relationships and direction.
The vision arrives amid a more sober counterpoint in the same week's research. A Nielsen survey of 1,700 directors and senior managers for Monday.com found more than half of senior leaders now find it harder to evaluate employees' work since adopting AI tools, because so much output arrives polished regardless of how much of it the employee actually produced.
Those two views — agents as the operating system of the firm, and managers struggling to audit what agents and staff produce together — define the argument businesses will have through 2027. Replit is betting the tools win; the managers in the survey are asking who checks the work when they do.
