Autonomous Agents

Autonomous agents are AI systems that can pursue goals independently over extended periods, making decisions, taking actions, and adapting to changing conditions without continuous human guidance. The 'autonomous' spectrum ranges from simple task completion (send this email) to complex goal pursuit (grow our EMEA pipeline by 20%). The key design questions are: what scope of autonomy is appropriate, how does the agent earn expanded autonomy over time, and what happens when autonomous decisions go wrong?