In my post about multinational teams I wrote that a colleague’s silence in a meeting could mean at least six different things. They might be thinking deeply, disagreeing strongly, waiting to be invited to speak, fighting a bad connection, processing in a second language or just really needing coffee.

I missed one. There is a seventh meaning now. They are talking to their agent.

Nobody asks me “hey, do you have five minutes?” as often as they used to. The questions didn’t go away. They went somewhere else. The somewhere else never gets tired, never needs coffee and never says “I have no idea, let’s ask someone else.”

I’ve complained before that AI turned me into a project manager for a machine. This post is about the other side of that deal. When everyone has a sidekick, what happens to the team?

Early in my career, I assumed everyone worked the same way I did. I thought “professional” meant universal and that technical rigor transcended culture. I was not just incorrect, I was naively wrong.

I’ve spent about twenty-five years working in infrastructure engineering, almost always in multinational distributed teams. I’ve been the formal manager of an infrastructure team twice in my career, but mostly I’ve been on the other side, a team member trying to figure out how to work with people who think, communicate, and collaborate completely differently than I do. Right now, I’m in a team of seven people where every single person has a different nationality, trying to help, enable and influence while “my way” might not be “their way.” I misjudge people’s preferences regularly and have to repair trust after the fact. It’s uncomfortable every time, but it’s part of the process.

One of the things I care deeply about is helping other engineers grow. Over the last year, I’ve had a lot of conversations, some with folks just entering the field, others with seasoned pros, asking the same question: how is AI going to reshape our work? There is fear and uncertainty, but also some optimism.

There’s a rhythm to these tech cycles.

I’ve seen it before, big promises, huge hype, sweeping predictions. Right now, we’re being told that AI will replace entire roles, maybe entire industries. It’s the same energy we saw with self-driving cars. For years, we were told they were just around the corner. But today, in 2025, I still don’t see a 40-ton truck rolling down the Autobahn without a driver. Waymo works, yes, but in tightly controlled areas, in a few cities. Meanwhile, here in Europe, truck drivers are still very much in demand.