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2025 could be the year when AI agents take wing, says futurist
Peter Schwartz acknowledges challenges from bad actors and geopolitical road bumps, but is broadly optimistic about the future.
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Futurist and world-renowned scenario planner Peter Schwartz, 78, has been working on AI since the 1970s.
PHOTO: PATSON GOH
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During his recent visit to Singapore, the futurist and world-renowned scenario planner Peter Schwartz wanted to change the arrangements for his return flight. He tried to do it through the Singapore Airlines app, but that didn’t work for him. So, he turned to the airline’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital agent. “Within seconds, it was able to update my reservation, make the booking and issue me my boarding pass,’’ he says.
Mr Schwartz, 78, has been working on AI since the 1970s, having written books and even movie scripts about it. Now, as Chief Futures Officer of the customer-relationship management company Salesforce, he is a champion of “agentic AI” – whereby artificially intelligent agents, acting like virtual humans, can not only make complex decisions, but also act on them.
