（图片来自TIME）

Take, for example, a large retailer during the upcoming holiday season.Traditionally, human workers or pre-programmed software might handle customer inquiries or inventory updates. But now, intelligent digital agents can respond to customer questions in real time, monitor stock levels, reorder inventory, and even coordinate with shipping providers—all without human intervention. These agents are enabling an entirely new scale of operations that was previously not possible.

以一家即将迎来节假日的大型零售店为例。过去可能是人工或预先编程的软件会处理客户查询或库存更新。但现在，聪明的数字智能体可以实时回答客户问题、监控库存水平、重新订购库存，甚至与运输供应商协调——所有这些都无需人工干预。智能体运作的运营规模空前、前所未有。

This shift to intelligent digital labor is already unlocking capacity across industries.It’s no longer constrained by human availability or physical limits, allowing businesses to scale their operations while driving down costs and improving responsiveness, or by geographical limits — opening opportunities preciously limited by location.

这种向智能数字劳动力的转变释放了各个行业的产能。它不再受到人力或物理限制，可以让企业在扩大运营规模、降低成本并提高响应能力的同时，摆脱地理限制——为地理位置欠佳的企业提供宝贵的机会。

Like any change of this magnitude,the shift to agents comes with clear challenges and understandable fears. We need to make sure AI systems are built with trust, accountability, fairness, and transparency as core values. We need to make sure, as AI transforms how we work, that we invest in the training, creativity, and critical thinking skills that are uniquely human. And recognizing AI’s impact on our carbon footprint, we need to make sure that we’re investing in sustainability, ecopreneurs and nature-based solutions. If we face and address these concerns, it’s possible to envision new levels of abundance enabled by an expansible digital workforce that learns and grows more capable all the time.

同其他的重大转变一样，智能体作为数字劳动力也带来了明确的挑战和合理的担忧。我们需要确保以信任、责任、公平和透明为核心价值建设人工智能系统。人工智能在改变我们的工作方式，那我们需要更多的投入在人类独有的技能上，比如培训、创造力和批判性思维。还有，在认识到人工智能对碳足迹的影响后，我们需要关注可持续、环保创业者和基于自然的解决方案。如果我们正视这些问题并加以解决，那么更多可以不断学习，能力更强大的数字劳动力将为人类创造更富足的生活。

The potential of agents isn’t limited to businesses—these technologies have the potential to profoundly enhance the lives of individuals as well.We’ll all have access to specialized agents that can navigate different parts of our lives. For example, every student will have an own always-on, personalized tutor– an agent embedded in their everyday technology that acts as an intelligent companion guiding them throughout their learning journey at every stage. Our personal agents, communicating with other agents, will help manage our daily routines, from ordering groceries for us to scheduling appointments. 

智能体的潜力不仅在企业中大放异彩——也会极大地改善个人生活。每个人都能够使用专门的智能体解决生活中各种困难。例如，每个学生都会拥有一位永久在线的个性化导师——一个嵌入他们日常使用科技的智能体可作为智能伴侣，在每个学习阶段指导学生。通过与其他智能体沟通，个人智能体可帮助我们管理日常事务，从订购杂货到安排约会。 

AI agents are already transforming how we deliver healthcare.We know that doctors and nurses are facing tremendous burnout, and there are provider shortages in many communities. As one of the world’s largest medical systems has recently discovered using our platform, agents can alleviate administrative burdens, improving patient communication while giving providers the space to focus on complex cases that demand their expertise. Over time, patients will have access to an AI agent that reaches out to check on you after a procedure, reminding you to follow up on test results, and asking if you have any unexpected reactions that need to be addressed. It will monitor patient progress and even reschedule labs or appointments as needed, all while maintaining a detailed understanding of the patient’s medical history and ongoing treatment. 

AI智能体改变了提供医疗保健的方式。我们知道医生和护士正面临着巨大的职业倦怠，许多社区都存在工作人员短缺的困境。世界上最大的医疗系统中的一家通过使用我们的平台发现，智能体可以减轻管理负担，改善患者沟通，有助于医疗人员将专业知识用于复杂病例。未来，患者可以使用AI智能体在术后检查身体情况，提醒跟进检查结果，并询问是否有任何需要处理的意外反应。它将监测患者的进展，甚至根据需要重新安排实验室或预约，同时详细了解患者的病史和正在进行的治疗。 

Of course, this new Agentic Era, like every technology throughout history, will bring about disruptions and risks that we ignore at our peril.Some companies will struggle to adapt. Nearly every job will change in some ways. And, yes, some will go away. In the past, we’ve seen companies and sometimes entire industries rise and fall with new inventions—jets, satellites, the Internet, the smartphone, renewable energy. Ultimately, however, these innovations create far more new jobs that they displace. In 1950, for example, 43 million Americans had jobs. By 2020, over 152 million Americans were employed. Multiple factors played a role, but that is more than 100 million new jobs in a period of profound technological change, many in categories that did not exist before. The key, as always, will be to invest in the education and training that equips workers and young people with the skills to succeed in the new jobs and industries to come.

当然，同历史上的每一项技术一样，这一崭新的智能体时代也会带来破坏与风险，倘若忽视，我们将面临巨大的危机。一些公司会难以适应，几乎每项工作都会发生一些变化。没错，当中有的会消失。我们曾见证过一些公司、有时甚至是整个行业随着新发明潮起潮落——喷气式飞机、卫星、互联网、智能手机、可再生能源。但最终，同取代的部分相比，这些创新将创造出更多的新工作、新岗位。例如，1950年美国就业人口有4300万。到2020年，这一数字将超过1.52亿。虽然影响因素很多，但深刻的技术变革和1亿多个新的工作岗位是同期发生的，其中许多岗位还是是过去不存在的。因此，应对挑战的关键是一如既往地在教育和职业培训上投资，让雇员和年轻人具备成功应对新工作和新行业的技能。

The benefits AI agents bring both individuals and businesses will far outweigh the initial disruptions.After all, growth in a country’s GDP is the product of growth in the labor force and in productivity. With the labor force stagnating or even shrinking in some regions and industries, countries will need to rely more than ever on boosting productivity, especially in the services sector, which is now the bulk of modern economies. Today, with the human labor force growth stagnant in many places, exceptional productivity driven by a digital agent force is vital for GDP growth. Agents amplify human labor, driving innovation and efficiency. Productivity rose 2.2% in the third quarter of 2024, fueled in part by AI.

AI智能体未来给个人和企业带来的益处将远超初期的破坏。毕竟，一个国家的GDP增长在于劳动力和生产力增长。由于部分地区和行业劳动力增长停滞甚至萎缩，各国将比以往更要依赖提高生产率，尤其是在如今已成为现代经济主力的服务业。今天，许多地方的人类劳动力增长陷入停滞，数字智能体带来的卓越生产力对于GDP增长至关重要。智能体强化了人类劳动力，推动了创新和效率。2024年第三季度生产率增长了2.2%，部分是人工智能的推动。

Finally, AI agents will drive innovation.It will continue to jumpstart countless new companies, just as the birth of the microchip more than 65 years ago spurred the creation of iconic companies like Apple, Dell, and Microsoft. (More than 5,000 new artificial intelligence companies have been funded in the U.S. alone over the last decade.) This too will create significant numbers of new jobs, both within tech and across the global economy.

最后，AI智能体将推动创新。它将继续推动无数新兴公司的诞生，就像65多年前微芯片的诞生刺激了苹果、戴尔和微软等标志性公司的创立一样（仅在过去十年中，美国就有超过5,000 家新的人工智能公司获得资助）。无论是科技领域还是全球经济领域，大量新的就业机会将被创造出来。

All of this is a reminder that technology itself is neither good nor bad; what matters is how we use it.Without proper oversight and training data, autonomous AI can make choices that conflict with our wishes or even with human values or ethics, such as prioritizing profit over safety or discriminating against certain groups. Harnessing the power of agentic AI effectively will require a multistake holder approach–businesses, governments, nonprofits, and academia working together to create guardrails and guidelines. We are already seeing some of this in efforts such as the framework by the G7 nations emphasizing accountability, transparency, safety and data privacy. Another example is the Bletchley Declaration by 28 countries and the European Union that emerged from the UK AI Safety Summit that I and other tech CEOs attended last year, agreeing to collaborate on AI safety and development.

所有这些都提醒我们，技术本身无所谓好坏，重要的是我们如何使用它。如果缺乏相应的监督和适当的训练数据，自主的人工智能可能会做出与我们的意愿甚至人类价值观或道德相冲突的选择，例如优先考虑利润而不是安全，或是歧视某些群体。有效利用AI智能体的力量需要多方利益相关者——企业、政府、非营利组织和学术界共同参与制定规则和指导方针。在这方面，我们已经看到了一些的努力，例如七国集团 (G7) 国家制定了强调问责制、透明度、安全性和数据隐私的框架。另一个例子是，去年我与其他科技公司CEO出席了英国人工智能安全峰会，会上28个国家和欧盟签署了《布莱切利宣言》，同意在人工智能安全和发展方面开展合作。

AI itself can play a role in guiding us through the disruptions to come.As M.I.T. economist David Autor argues, AI has the potential to act as a leveling force, lowering barriers to entering the workforce by giving people access to tools and knowledge that were once reserved for a privileged few. Look, for example, at how our Agentforce platform is transforming the college-admissions process for the nonprofit College Possible. In many areas of the country, high school college counselors are responsible for many hundreds of students, making individual guidance almost impossible. In less than a week, College Possible used our platform to create a virtual college counselor for high school students. Now, any student can get college-prep support to augment sessions with a human counselor. This virtual counselor tracks the conversations in those sessions, has deep knowledge of colleges, and accesses student transcripts already housed within College Possible to provide guidance. This is a powerful expansion of labor potential, unlocking new ways to support students where traditional resources have been limited.

人工智能本身可以帮助我们度过未来的变革。正如麻省理工学院经济学家戴维·奥托 (David Autor) 所说，人工智能有可能充当一种平衡力量，通过让人们获得曾经只为少数特权人士保留的工具和知识，降低进入劳动力市场的门槛。例如，看看我们的Agentforce平台如何改变非营利性机构College Possible的大学录取流程。在全国许多地区，高中大学辅导员要负责数百名学生，因此几乎不可能进行个别指导。不到一周的时间，College Possible就利用我们的平台为高中生创建了一个虚拟大学辅导员。现在，任何学生都可以获得大学预科支持，以增强与人类辅导员的交流。这位虚拟辅导员会跟踪这些交流中的对话，对大学有深入的了解，并可以访问College Possible中已存储的学生成绩单来提供指导，极大得增加了劳动力，在传统资源有限的情况下提供了帮助学生的新途径。