I recently interviewed an industrial AI engineer who described training an AI agent as “capturing intelligence” — explaining that the real expertise lives in the human brain.
“The agent is trained through ongoing conversations and informed by human expert knowledge, acting as an extension of that expertise rather than a replacement,” he stated. 💡
This conversation came soon after AI-tool cofounder Matt Shumer’s viral piece about AI eliminating 50% of white-collar jobs in the next 1-5 years filled this channel’s airwaves (you know, the jobs human brains fill…).
The best in content marketing provided their opinions on Matt’s “Something Big is Happening” piece (looking at you, Ann Handley and Robert Rose 👀), including Ann saying, “Matt is right about a few things, including that most people underestimate how much has changed in the past year.
“But at the same time… he’s not right about everything.”
Between the COVID analogy (“This AI moment is as rare and catastrophic as a global pandemic,” said Matt in his piece) and the way capitalism will force adoption, the fear factor was heightened for anyone who read it. 😱
As Ann put it, “In other words: companies will adopt AI to save money, creating competitive pressure that forces everyone else to follow or whither away.”
“But that assumes ‘cheaper and faster’ always wins. That’s not actually true—especially not in knowledge work where trust, relationships, and stakes matter,” Ann stated. (Mic drop 🎤)
So, back to the human brain that my new Industrial AI engineer friend so lovingly described as the source autonomous agents require to operate and complement the jobs of humans, not replace them.
“That intelligence exists, that intelligence is just in a human’s brain, and all we’re trying to do is put it into a piece of technology,” he said.
True story.
About Beth | Services | Contact
Proven B2B content strategy and storytelling
Copyright © 2026 Moving Words into Action, LLC.