5 ways to become more “high agency” in the age of AI

our Twitter (X) feedView our Youtube channelView our Instagram feedView our Substack feedView our Spotify feed The ability to see your options clearly and act on them has never been more valuable. Mind and BehaviorArtificial IntelligenceDecision MakingEmpoweringIntrinsic Motivation In a recent OpenAI town hall, CEO Sam Altman was asked his opinion on the most important skill people should learn in the age of AI. After some initial throat clearing, Altman’s first piece of advice was clear: “Become high agency.” “Agency” has become the word of the moment.

According to various Silicon Valley types, it’s how you avoid becoming part of the permanent underclass, the “most important personality trait of the 21st century,” and the difference between protagonists and non-player characters (NPCs) in the game of life. But the word “agency” has two distinct meanings in the AI age. Those touting its importance in the examples above are talking about the ability and willingness to take action — an agentic person doesn’t just think about doing things; they do them.

But “agency” can also refer to someone or something that acts on your behalf. That gap — between acting for yourself and another acting for you — is a central tension driving professional anxiety right now, particularly in white-collar fields where AI can both augment workers and potentially replace them. On the one hand, AI is empowering.

It’s never been easier to send a cold email or create an app. Two recently published nonfictionbooks capture this ethos in the title they share: _You Can Just Do Things_. On the other hand, as AI itself becomes more agentic — acting on behalf of its user with minimal direction — some are starting to feel disempowered, not only in their daily lives but also in shaping their futures.

When a select few are getting unfathomably rich while the vast majority of workers worry about their place in the economy, it’s easy to feel like the passive recipient of a world others created for you. Here are five tips for developing it. Increasing your agency starts with understanding what intrinsically motivates you.

Daniel Pink argues in his 2009 book, _Drive_, that the carrot-and-stick approach to motivation leads people to forfeit some of their autonomy, which can “spring a hole in the bottom of their motivation bucket.” Instead, Pink advocates cultivating three elements of intrinsic motivation: mastery, purpose, and autonomy. Those elements can also serve as valuable guideposts in the pursuit of agency. Ask yourself: In this season of life, what do I hope to learn?