“Workplace success comes from curiosity. From taking a minute to ask, what can tools like Operator do?”

‼️We’ve got an emergency episode on this week’s AI Report podcast‼️

I talked to AI strategist, teacher, and founder of multiple AI companies, Ashley Gross, about OpenAI’s first AI agent—Operator—based on her first-hand experience using it.

We discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Operator and go in on how you can practically use it to help with your real-life workplace tasks. 

If you’re even a little bit curious, this one is definitely for you.

🎙️Watch the full episode here

____________

🔓 The key parts

1. 📢 Introducing OpenAI’s Operator

2. 😶 The good, bad, and ugly sides of Operator

3. 💻 Practical use cases and initial reactions

4. 🔮 The future of work and the impact of agents

Read Time: 5 minutes

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ASHLEY GROSS

— — — —

📢 Introducing OpenAI’s Operator

Liam: “For the people who don't know what OpenAI’s Operator is, could you tell us, in basic terms, what it is and what it does?”

Ashley: “This is OpenAI's first AI agent, which can operate the internet on your browser in live time and perform tasks autonomously. So if you've ever had an IT issue and you work for a company and they had to use any desk or some remote access where you have somebody operating your mouse pad in front of you and you can see it happening from your computer, that is what Operator is for OpenAI.”

Ashley: “It got a bit pushed under the rug because they released it during their 12 days of Christmas giveaways and feature updates during the holidays. So, this has been out a little over two months now, and not a lot of people know about it. So I think that this warrants this emergency podcast episode.”

CONNECT WITH ASHLEY HERE.

— — — —

😶 The good, bad, and ugly sides of Operator

Liam: “You've had around a month of hands-on experience with it. What's the good, the bad, and the ugly?”

Ashley: “The good is, you can sit and watch your screen move and oversee every aspect of this workflow to ensure that it’s compliant and up to your standards. And, as it’s performing a task autonomously, if you leave that screen and do something else and it needs you, it will flash up and say things like, “Hey! Don’t change your screen” or “Do you want to proceed?” So it insists on keeping the human in the loop.”

Ashley: “And I would say the bad is, you have to take it one task at a time. Like when you use ChatGPT, you have to start one chat at a time; that's very much how Operator is, which isn’t conducive to how we are used to working, as humans.”

— — — —

💻 Practical use cases and initial reactions

Liam: “You've come up with three separate examples to explain how someone might use Operator, which include drafting emails through Asana project boards, summarizing calls around Asana, and lastly, training agents to find suitable times to correlate calendars and update agendas.”

Ashley: “Yeah, I was trying to think what would help an audience who is probably a little wary of Operator but would benefit from using it the most. So, these use cases are aimed at people managers. I’m talking C-suite, Directors—people who have lots and lots of pressure—and they might have access to these tools, but not be optimizing them.”

Liam: “I love the fact that you've kept these examples tangible and easy to understand, so people can conceptualize it. And I think that's especially prevalent in this first example….”

— — — — 

🔮 The future of work and the impact of agents

Liam: “In general, people look at job displacement through a negative lens: AI is going to ruin everything and take everyone's job, but in a lot of cases, it might enrich them and provide more time for them to focus on high-value things. From your perspective, what personality trait do you think is going to be the most important to succeed in this new world?”

Ashley: “Curiosity. Because that's the backbone of innovation. The people who are taking a minute to say, “Okay, this Operator from OpenAI…that's a new thing. What can it do?” start this nice domino effect, where they start thinking, “Perhaps I’ll test this out. Maybe it’s just a proof of concept that stays a proof of concept, but maybe there's value in it that I can use and teach to others… so, instead of just me knowing this, my whole team now knows this.” This then frees up time to focus on higher strategic activities.”

Ashley: “So this nice little domino effect all starts with being curious and asking questions. And I think that as a society, we sometimes forget that we're not supposed to know everything. And that doesn't make us naive, like many fear, it’s actually really freeing.”

➡️ KEY TAKEAWAYS

✔️ Operator’s core strength: Operator automates browser-based workflows, reducing ‘busywork’ and allowing users to focus on strategic tasks and high-quality outputs.

✔️ Keep human input: Operator relies on human oversight, emphasizing the need for AI tools to evolve with human guidance to ensure accuracy, compliance, and trust.

✔️ Changing work dynamics: AI agents can automate routine tasks like SEO, as AI search engines prioritize quality and interaction over keyword-driven methods.

✔️ Skills for thriving in an AI-driven workplace: Curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to learn will allow people to leverage AI and not be displaced by it.