As Bill Gates invests in personal AI, says agents will be a ‘shock wave’

In a blog post yesterday about how personal AI agents will completely change how people use computers — just a few days after OpenAI announced its “baby steps” towards agents with its Assistants API — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that personal AI agents will be a ‘shock wave’ in the tech industry and society.

“In the near future, anyone who’s online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that’s far beyond today’s technology,” he wrote. “Agents will be able to help with virtually any activity and any area of life. The ramifications for the software business and for society will be profound.”

Bill Gates already has skin in the personal AI game

What Gates does not mention in the post is that he already has some serious skin in the personal AI game: In an interview with Bill Gates this past May during a Goldman Sachs and SV Angel event on AI, Bill Gates said the first company to develop a personal agent to disrupt SEO would have a “leg up on competitors.”

“Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” he said.