The Future with AI: Not Computer Scientists, Not Humanists, But Managers Will Lead the Transformation of Business Processes

The CES in Las Vegas has just ended—the most significant event for consumer electronics—and two key concepts stand out: IoT (Internet of Things) and AI Agents. It was already foreseeable by mid-2024, but as 2025 begins, the reality is undeniable: intelligence is becoming embedded in everything, distributed across small objects and agents that execute tasks autonomously.

An AI agent is, in itself, a simple unit: a small software component activated within a process. It processes the output of another agent, often leveraging a Large Language Model (LLM) like OpenAI to transform content, and then delivers the result to the next agent in the chain.

The Decline of Centralized Software and Traditional Interfaces

Programming, including the creation of AI agents, will increasingly be delegated to machines, and systems will become less centralized. Some are already predicting the decline of centralized online services, such as SaaS (Software as a Service). Personally, I believe this is already happening.

For example, having a centralized CRM (like Salesforce) will soon seem less "intelligent"—instead, businesses will rely on small, interconnected services that communicate dynamically, orchestrated to deliver results.

We are used to monolithic, centralized software with clearly defined inputs and outputs, structured databases, Excel sheets, and rigid organizational hierarchies. While these structures may be precise, they are often inefficient to maintain and misaligned with our real needs.

From car dashboards to home banking interfaces to sales reports, interacting with computers has mostly been a frustrating necessity. Let’s be honest—using computers has always been a necessary annoyance.

With AI, much of Excel and traditional databases will become obsolete. The very concept of a data structure for storing information could disappear—though, for now, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) will still be needed for communication between different software components. Eventually, many user interfaces will disappear altogether.

Take AskYourDatabase as an example—services like these are redefining how we interact with data.

What About the Humanists?

In 2023, many—including myself—believed AI would create more opportunities for humanists at the expense of technical professionals.

We thought the future workforce would need people capable of making sense of things, rather than just structuring and operating systems.

Well, we were wrong.

AI is proving it can also make sense of things.

It’s not just technical professionals who are threatened—philosophers, critics, and humanists are at risk as well.

As I wrote in a previous article, 2025 is the year of Aladdin’s lamps—"ask, and you shall receive." The real limitation is no longer about knowing how to do something, but rather knowing what to desire.

In this emerging scenario, neither assigning meaning nor ensuring perfect functionality will be necessary. Instead, it will be enough for things to work "somehow."

Consider how the world itself operates:

• Does it work flawlessly? No.

• Is it perfectly organized? No.

• Does everything make perfect sense? Not really.

Yet, despite its imperfections, humanity—with 8 billion people alive today and countless millions before us—has managed to survive, evolve, and grow.

Has technology accelerated this growth economically, culturally, or spiritually? Absolutely. But it has done so in a clumsy and limiting way.

In the past, computer programmers had to define everything down to the smallest detail.

• Inputs had to be painstakingly precise.

• Imagine this absurdity: computers had to be explicitly told whether "81" was a number or a text string.

• But 81 is 81—who cares how you see it? Just interpret it according to the context!

This is the power of AI. You no longer have to explain everything—you only need to express what you desire.

We will adapt to less perfect systems that are far more efficient.

Think about it:

• Does it really matter whether I’m male or female when boarding a flight?

• Why do we have to enter the same address 100 times a week in 100 different places? Enough!

Why the Future Belongs to Managers

1. Programmers Have Engineered Themselves Out of a Job

Software developers have probably done their jobs too well—so well that they have worked toward their own obsolescence.

Frankly, this is what any competent employee should aim for—to organize their work so efficiently that the system can function without them.

2. The "Golden Age" of Humanists Was a Short One

Humanists had a brief moment of glory, but their economic future is anything but promising.

3. Businesses Need a New Kind of Process Management

Today, businesses must organize their processes in a decentralized way.

For every request, you will simply need to express it in terms of AI agents.

This is why enterprise IT systems will increasingly be designed as processes by managers—and the moment they are designed, they will be automatically programmed as well.

If You Can Think It, You Can Describe It—And If You Can Describe It, You Can Have It

In the past, a manager had to:

1. Communicate their vision to an analyst

2. The analyst would pass it to a systems designer

3. The designer would translate it into technical requirements for a programmer

4. The programmer would write the code

5. A tester would validate the final product

And only at the end of this process would the manager realize that something had been misunderstood!

Today, things are different.

A manager can think of an idea and, within minutes, see a working prototype.

Sure, a few hours of fine-tuning by software engineers might still be needed to finalize and secure the system.

But increasingly, thanks to AI, we are freeing ourselves from technology.

The Ultimate Goal?

Freedom to express and desire—without technological barriers.

Final Thought

We are entering an era where technology fades into the background, becoming an invisible enabler of human intent.

The real challenge is no longer knowing how to do things—but knowing what to desire.

And managers, not technologists or humanists, will be the ones leading this transition.