JOBS
“We may see the first AI agents join the workforce in 2025 and materially change the output of companies.”
- Said
- Jan 2025
- Closed
- Dec 2025
- Source
- blog post →
- Verdict
- unclear
What would settle this
No measurable threshold was offered when the claim was made, and none exists. Agent products shipping is not the claim; "materially change the output of companies" is. Absent an agreed measure of company output attributable to agents, this settles as unclear.
Written when the claim went on the record, on 7 August 2026, before the outcome was known. How the record works →
Readers split 34 to 66 on this one. Nobody was right, because nothing could settle it.
657 on record
Agent products did ship across the industry during 2025. Whether they materially changed company output cannot be measured against any agreed benchmark, and none was offered when the claim was made. Recorded as unclear rather than forced into a stamp it does not fit.
Voting closed when the deadline passed. What readers thought is kept as it stood. Think this verdict is wrong? Tell us — with evidence, it gets reversed and the change is logged.
About Sam Altman
Chief executive and co-founder of OpenAI, previously president of Y Combinator. Has argued publicly that systems meeting most definitions of AGI are close, and that capability gains will keep compounding rapidly.
On the record