Are We All Just Agents Now...
How acting as the "creative bridge" between AI systems is changing our role, one copy-paste at a time.
A quick note to start: This week's post is a thought in progress. I find that writing is the best way for me to work through complex ideas, and this is a concept I'm actively wrestling with right now. Consider this a real-time glimpse into how I'm connecting some dots…
I was talking to a startup founder recently who offered a fascinating perspective on our relationship with AI. As they work to integrate agents into their collaborative tool, he remarked that he's started to think of humans as just another "API endpoint" in a complex, agent-driven system.
While the term might sound a bit clinical, it immediately clicked. It's a useful lens for understanding our evolving, and increasingly powerful, partnership with AI. It suggests we're not just passive users, but active, essential participants in orchestrating more complex outcomes. This single idea is making me see a powerful pattern everywhere, from the simple act of prompting AI today to more futuristic partnerships.
The Creative Bridge: Our Role in the Digital World
A product builder recently observed that many of the most elaborate prompts for image generation models feel like they were written by another AI – and they're often right. It’s a workflow many of us are adopting: we collaborate with one AI to brainstorm and refine the "perfect" prompt, then act as the creative bridge, bringing that prompt to a different AI to generate an image.
I do this constantly. Sometimes I'll iterate back and forth with the first AI, but in my lazier moments, it's a straight copy-paste. In this scenario, the "human-in-the-loop" isn't a bug; it's a feature. We are performing a crucial act of curation and direction that the systems can’t yet do on their own. We are the essential link, guiding the process to a better result than any single AI seems to be able to achieve in isolation. This has become especially clear as I've started using more multi-tool workflows, consciously moving ideas from one AI environment to another to build on their collective strengths.
The Physical Conduit: A Future Partnership
This pattern extends beyond just digital copy-pasting. A recent paper turned podcast (the thought-provoking AI 2027) explored a future where humans wearing smart glasses could be guided by AI agents to assemble complex robots with perfect precision (depending on what lens you look at this through, it has elements of a dystopian future, or through an optimistic lens, a powerful partnership).
Imagine an AI designing the perfect robot to assist with household chores. Who better to direct its physical construction than the AI itself, partnering with human hands to bring its digital blueprint into the physical world? In this view, humans become skilled collaborators, enabling AI to create tools that will ultimately serve us. The core idea is the same: humans acting as a temporary (in this case, physical) conduit for an AI, performing tasks in the physical world that the AI cannot yet do on its own.
From Endpoint to Orchestrator: Reclaiming Our Agency
So, where does this leave us? Are we just becoming cogs in a machine?
I don't think so. I've realized I don't need futuristic smart glasses to step into this new role. I am already consciously choosing to be the orchestrator.
Every time I take the output from one AI and feed it into another to get a better collective result, I'm not just a user; I'm directing a multi-agent workflow. My own creative taste and strategic goal make me the indispensable conductor of this process, achieving something that was previously impossible. It's an active choice to leverage these tools in a new, more sophisticated way.
As AI improves and products get better, I fully expect agents will start talking directly to each other, replacing much of the manual copy-paste work I do today. When that happens, I'll simply take a step back and elevate my viewpoint, finding new ways to use these even more capable systems to build entirely new kinds of things.
I look forward to the day I no longer need to act as the bridge between two AI systems – I know we'll get there. Until then, the best way to prepare for what's next is to continue leaning in, learning to be the conductor with AI, and playing that active, creative, and essential role in weaving together their capabilities.
I'm excited for a future where my primary role is to be the visionary setting the goal, while AI increasingly handles the tasks needed to achieve it.