Business Standard: “The future of customer support is now being shaped by agentic AI, a breakthrough technology that goes beyond scripted responses to anticipate needs, personalise interactions, and solve complex problems with minimal human intervention. Agentic AI is redefining what it means to provide support — creating a future where machines don’t just respond, but truly understand. What started with IVR, and then evolved into clunky chatbots, is now being reimagined by intelligent AI agents that think, speak, and act almost like humans. As a result, a quiet revolution is under way across industries, redefining how businesses engage with their customers. Hundreds of companies, from quick commerce to hardware, pharma, banks, and others such as Zepto, Lenovo, Panasonic, Tata Play, Cipla, Sony and HDFC Bank, are turning to AI-powered agents that don’t just respond — but resolve. These virtual assistants are no longer mere gatekeepers to answer calls and escalate to human agents. They are trained to understand nuance, manage complex queries, and trigger actions that once required human judgement.” More: “The $54 billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry — long known for its human capital advantage and operational scale — is undergoing a transformation more profound than any seen since its start almost three decades ago. This time, the disruption is not being driven by headcount, but by algorithms. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its more autonomous cousin, Agentic AI, which can act independently and make decisions without constant human intervention, are rapidly reshaping the architecture of global outsourcing, redefining not only how services are delivered, but what services are even needed.”
WSJ: “Moderna’s move to merge technology and human resources into a single function is the latest sign that artificial intelligence is bringing big changes to the workforce. The biotech company late last year announced the creation of a new role, chief people and digital technology officer, promoting its human resources chief Tracey Franklin to the spot. Franklin said she is redesigning teams across the company based on what work is best done by people versus what can be automated with technology, including the tech it leverages from a partnership with AI giant OpenAI. Roles are being created, eliminated and reimagined as a result, she said…The company now has developed over 3,000 tailored versions of ChatGPT, called GPTs, that are designed to facilitate specific tasks, including dose selection for clinical trials and helping draft responses to questions from regulators. GPTs can also be strung together to execute more complicated workflows. For example, the company has a broad human resources GPT that can digest employee questions and then route them to GPTs focused on performance management, equity or benefits.”
Marc Benioff: “You’re going to have to throw a lot against the wall before you figure out what sticks. And that is the magic. So you’re like, “wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense. These 10,000 companies just got funded, and only 100 of them are good.” But you have to fund them all to get to the 100. We saw that in the internet revolution — we didn’t know who was going to be Google and who was going to be Ask Jeeves and Yahoo. It’s a progression. Tactics are going to dictate strategy over time. But you’re in a moment now where there is a huge cycle. If you’re not getting a hype cycle or funding cycle — or you could call it a bubble, you could call it a lot of things — you’re not going to end up with the incredible outcome on the other side.” More: “We’re building a multibillion-dollar business on this simple idea, which is we are seeing what is going to be a multitrillion-dollar opportunity in digital labour. That’s unfolding before our very eyes. This idea that the world will end up spending $3tn to $12tn on forms of technology, including agents like you mentioned but also robots and others, to provide digital labour, to usher in this new world of abundance: that’s a very real idea.”
Andy Kessler: “Why so much tariff love? The mind-meld on tariffs is about power. Everyone wants his finger in the pie. Politicians and technocrats insist they know how to direct a $115 trillion global economy and how many dolls your child needs at Christmas. C’mon now. Power corrupts. Like identity politics and climate hysteria, passion for tariffs is a sleight of hand to grab power. Tariffs bring insider dealing and special interests…It’s so easy to fix: zero tariffs. It wasn’t that long ago that we had a world with minimal tariffs and markets humming along. Yes, those in charge gave up some of their power, but they got long-term prosperity.”
