MIT Sloan CIO Symposium – Online Series
Episode #12
Recording Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

🎙️ Title: Agentic AI: Revolutionizing Work or a Path to Dystopia?

In this episode, hosts Allan Tate and Irving Wladawsky-Berger sit down with Tom Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor at Babson College and co-author of Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life. Together, they explore the rise of agentic AI—autonomous systems designed to perform digital tasks—and their potential to reshape the workplace.

Davenport shares insights from real-world deployments, such as AI-driven compliance in banking and automated warranty claims in automotive, while weighing the promises and perils of AI-human collaboration. The discussion ranges from productivity gains and job augmentation to the risks of over-reliance on flawed AI models, hallucinations in critical fields like medicine, and even the societal implications of AI companionship.

The conversation challenges CIOs and executives to move beyond fear and hype—focusing instead on augmentation, re-engineering, and human-centric design to ensure that AI agents become trusted partners rather than dystopian replacements.

🔗 References & Further Reading:

• The Potential of AI Agents: Three Stories Drawn from Real-World Experiences

• The Long Term Evolution of Agentic AI

• The Roles of Humans in an Agent-Driven World (Tom Davenport)

• We’re Screwed If We Don’t Stay in the Agentic AI Loop (Tom Davenport)

• Agentic Artificial Intelligence (Book)

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Save the Date: May 19, 2026 for the 23nd Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium