The future of the firm
The authors argue that AI will enter firms in three ways—beneath, beside, and between humans—reshaping management, worker agency, firm size, and pay.Summary
The essay explores how AI will be integrated into firms through three illustrative scenarios: "Beneath us" (AI as subordinates, making everyone a manager), "Beside us" (AI as colleagues working alongside humans under existing managers), and "Between us" (AI as coordinators between executives and workers). The authors argue that adoption will likely start with ground-level employees who best understand the work, but that more capable, end-to-end AI will be easier for executives to adopt directly. They discuss implications for red tape (AI lowers building costs, potentially reducing planning bureaucracy while enabling more oversight), worker agency (AI advice and monitoring could increase autonomy by closing decision-quality gaps and enabling trust), firm size (AI could support both smaller firms and larger AI-coordinated conglomerates), and pay disparity (AI-provided advice may compress pay by reducing differentiation, but judgment and scope could widen it). The overall tone is optimistic about productivity, creativity, and worker agency, while acknowledging uncertainties about surveillance and centralization of power.
(Source：OpenAI)