Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman says the future of work will involve managing AI agents, not just using them

Microsoft

Microsoft’s AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, has an important message for young people: get ready to work closely with artificial intelligence in the future — and start experimenting with it now.

Speaking on the Big Technology podcast, Suleyman shared his vision of what our daily work lives might look like 10 or 15 years from now. “It’s going to be much more about you managing your AI agent,” he said. “You’ll be asking it to do things, checking its quality, getting feedback, and working in a symbiotic relationship with it.”

Suleyman, who co-founded Google DeepMind, believes people often focus too much on AI’s day-to-day hype and not enough on its long-term impact. “After all, it is intelligence that has produced everything of value in our human civilization,” he said. AI, he believes, will soon become an affordable, powerful tool that shapes everything around us.

While AI hasn’t yet solved big problems like deadly diseases or the climate crisis, Suleyman is optimistic about where it’s heading. He admits there are risks, especially in areas like warfare and job automation, but insists the pace of innovation is only going to speed up.

For young people wondering how to prepare, his advice is simple: start using AI tools. “It’s a little bit like when people got access to the internet for the first time,” he said. “Use it, experiment, try stuff out, make mistakes, get it wrong.”

According to Suleyman, it’s the users — not just the creators — who decide what technology ultimately becomes. “The things that people choose to do with their tools are always way more inventive and surprising than anything you could possibly think of ahead of time,” he said.

His final tip? “Play with these things. Try them out, keep an open mind… and you’ll start to see both their strengths and weaknesses.”