Funeral Homes, Shrimp Farms and Unpaid Invoices: Where AI Agents Are Really Working
Forbes has listed twenty AI agents doing real work: a funeral home’s after-hours calls, shrimp farms, unpaid invoices. What they tell us, and what to do this week.
We Don’t Say a Nail Gun Went Rogue
Xi wants AI kept under human control, Trump calls the warnings a hoax, and our Prime Minister says the Medicare agent “didn’t accept no”. All three talk about it as if it were a creature. It’s a tool, and the question that matters is who was holding it, and why it took 84 days for anyone to say so.
Reputation Was the Currency. Now It Can Be Forged.
In 2017 I said reputation would become the ultimate personal currency. ASIC has now published a list of Australians whose reputations were spent by somebody else. What breaks isn’t the money, it’s every interaction that went right a little slower afterwards.
The Map in Your Head Is Out of Date
The UN voted 164 to 1 for a world map showing countries at their true size. The harder question for leaders is which picture they are still deciding from.
We Stopped Queuing: Apple’s September and the End of the Surprise
Apple launched a foldable iPhone this month, split its release calendar into three, and started selling phones on instalments in Australia. None of that is the story. The story is a category that has quietly stopped surprising anybody, and what happens to a business when the only levers left are shape, price and timing.
The Class of 2030 Hasn’t Started
Australian trade apprenticeship commencements fell for a third year while completions hit records. Only one of those numbers tells you anything about 2030.
