Mini: When AI Stops Waiting for Your Prompt: Agentic Workflows

As AI evolves faster than we can learn, how must work adapt?In this MINDWORKS Mini, host Daniel Serfaty and Prof. Joseph Fuller of Harvard Business School discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping the workplace—changing how we hire, train, and retain talent.They explore why continuous learning is essential, how AI coaching tools are catching up to human mentors, and which skills will define the workforce of the future. 

Prompting is out, context is in. Host Daniel Serfaty and Prof. Joseph Fuller of the Harvard Business School explore why “context engineering”—combining domain knowledge and judgment—is the next essential skill for human-AI teaming. They also discuss how organizational design, retention, and learning must evolve as technology advances faster than traditional upskilling can keep pace.

AI is reshaping entry-level work and the path to expertise. Host Daniel Serfaty and Prof. Joseph Fuller of the Harvard Business School break down how “mastery” roles shrink as rules-based tasks automate, and “growth” roles expand as AI removes barriers to entry. Learn what this shift means for career development and the next generation of talent.

How will artificial intelligence reshape the way we work? Which jobs will evolve, which will disappear, and how can we prepare for what comes next?  In this episode of MINDWORKS, host Daniel Serfaty talks with Professor Joseph Fuller of Harvard Business School, co-director of the Managing the Future of Work project, about how AI is transforming jobs, skills, and organizations. Together, they explore what makes certain roles more vulnerable to automation, how human–AI collaboration can create new opportunities, and what leaders, policymakers, and workers can do to ensure AI amplifies human potential rather than replaces it.  Listen for insights that cut through the hype and focus on what matters most: adapting to the future of work with purpose, equity, and resilience.

In this MINDWORKS Mini, Drs. Svitlana Volkova and Robert McCormack share with Daniel Serfaty how early fascinations became lifelong work in artificial intelligence. They describe how formative experiences, from math and optimization to philosophy and logic, sparked their interest and shaped their careers. This conversation highlights the power of cross-disciplinary thinking and the human perspective that continue to guide their work in building intelligent systems and advancing human–AI collaboration. 

As artificial intelligence grows more capable, it thrives on personal data, yet every piece of information we share deepens the privacy challenge. In this MINDWORKS Mini, Daniel Serfaty talks with Drs. Svitlana Volkova and Robert McCormack about how AI models collect, combine, and infer from our digital lives, even predicting future actions. They explore what this means for personal choice, data ownership, and trust, and offer practical advice for both AI developers and everyday users on staying vigilant while embracing AI’s potential.

What happens when AI can mirror your thinking, preferences, and decisions? In this MINDWORKS Mini, Daniel Serfaty explores the coming era of human digital twins with Dr. Svitlana Volkova and Robert McCormack. Together they look ahead to AI that not only automates tasks but co-evolves with us—supporting discovery, anticipating choices, and poised to redefine how we work, live, and team with machines.

AI is moving from passive assistant to proactive teammate. In this MINDWORKS Mini, Daniel Serfaty and Drs. Svitlana Volkova and  Robert McCormack explore the rise of compound AI and agentic workflows: systems of specialized AI agents that collaborate, reason, and take action on their own. Discover how this shift could transform work, amplify human-AI teaming, and reshape the ethical landscape of emerging technology. 

In this MINDWORKS Mini, join host Daniel Serfaty as he talks with Drs. Svitlana Volkova and Robert McCormack about the birth of Large Language Models and how we got to where we are today. Listen to the full episode, AI: The End of the Prologue on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Tracing the breakthroughs behind today’s AI, and the human future it’s shaping nextWelcome to season five of MINDWORKS. Over the next 12 months, together, we’re going to explore how artificial intelligence is redefining the many roles we humans play—whether we’re at school, at work, or at play.In this first episode, I’m joined by my colleagues Dr. Svitlana Volkova and Dr. Robert McCormack to make sense of where we are and where we’re going with AI. We discuss the breakthroughs that brought us here—transformers, reinforcement learning with human feedback—and the frontiers opening now: compound AI, agentic workflows, and reasoning models.You’ll hear how these advances are changing the way we search, learn, and even design digital twins of ourselves, along with the big questions they raise about bias, safety, privacy, and creativity. And we’ll look ahead to what’s coming soon—AI woven into our phones and enterprises—and what’s just over the horizon with embodied intelligence in the physical world.For developers, our advice is clear: focus on real problems, rethink how we evaluate AI, and design systems that team with humans. For everyday users: treat AI as a collaborator, not an oracle.And those headlines about an “AI bubble”? What we’re seeing is not the end of the story, but the end of the prologue.