In 2022, I wrote about the future of autonomous careers: paths defined by control, flow, and intrinsic motivation. That vision is no longer speculative. Now, AI is collapsing the boundaries between generalists and specialists, between thinkers and operators. Skills that once demanded years of training or access to elite institutions are now available to anyone with curiosity and a language model.
In a world of superintelligent tools, the bottleneck is no longer execution, it’s imagination.
A recent WSJ op-ed described how AI is amplifying the impact of high-agency individuals: those who challenge the status quo, believe the world is highly malleable, and act decisively to reshape it. These are people who once needed to become specialists or hire them to realize their vision. Now, they just need the right tools. A barber builds a booking system on Replit by simply describing the desired outcome. A restaurant in Massachusetts codes its own inventory system.
The underlying shift is bigger than AI. Our relationship to work has been quietly evolving for decades. A “career” is no longer a single ladder to climb. It’s becoming a portfolio of projects, experiments, and creative bets. One where autonomy, purpose, and ownership matter more than job titles or credentials. That shift, already in motion post-pandemic, is now accelerating into a new reality with the latest AI advancements.
Where the internet democratized knowledge, AI is democratizing skill. The rise of generative and agentic systems means individuals can now move from idea to execution faster than ever before. As Reid has written, we’re entering an era of superagency, where one person can operate with near-enterprise leverage. You don’t need a team to prototype, launch, or scale. You just need clarity of vision, sound judgment, and a strong sense of taste. This unlocks a new kind of career: one that’s multi-hyphenate by default. Founder-artist-researcher or operator-writer-curator. In this model, creativity compounds across disciplines not within the boundaries of a single job title.
The implications are profound:
As we approach AGI, many worry that superintelligence will diminish human creativity. But the silver lining is that it’s poised to amplify it–not by replacing creativity, but by redistributing power from walled institutions to high-agency individuals. People who were once disconnected from execution can now become highly effective when paired with the right tools.
This shift makes discernment and taste more valuable than ever. Taste isn’t just about visual style or aesthetic instinct. It’s the ability to choose what to build, what to ignore, and when to ship. As tools make execution cheaper and faster, the real differentiator becomes judgment. For example, the role of a product manager in tech was historically responsible for prioritization and strategy. In the era of superagency, a PM will only be as effective as their ability to leverage AI tools in service of clarity and focus. Execution becomes increasingly agentic; what remains is the ability to guide direction, align teams, and make tough calls. This may also lead to less rigid specialization. The traditional boundaries between “consumer” and “enterprise” begin to blur. What matters is not domain, but the ability to bring good taste and decisive action to products at any stage paired with the self-awareness to know which problems are worth solving and which ones aren’t.
This unlocks three new structures of work:
The most meaningful impact of superagency may not be economic; it may be cultural. When people are given the tools to work on their own terms, they tend to invest more fully–not just in their careers, but in their communities, relationships, and long-term goals. The solo founder who supports mutual aid. The designer who mentors new builders. The operator who starts a grant program. These aren’t idealistic outcomes, they’re early signs of what becomes possible when people feel fulfilled and in control. More autonomy doesn’t just improve productivity. It gives people more space to make meaningful choices: how they spend their time, who they invest in, and what they want to build long-term. That kind of agency can have ripple effects across society. The rise of superagency isn’t about replacing people, it’s about removing the friction between ideas and action. And when that happens, it doesn’t make us less human. It lets more of what makes us human come through.
We are entering a new era of work:
One where careers are composed, not inherited.
Where skill is measured by curiosity and output, not credentials.
And where fulfillment isn’t the byproduct of endurance, but the reward of self-direction.
In this future, the most meaningful work won’t be assigned, it will be authored. And the most powerful tool any individual can hold won’t be the AI itself, but a clear point of view on what to do with it.