Chat, agents and the shift to finished work

In October 2026 all three major labs offered a mode where you hand over a job rather than a question: ChatGPT Work, Claude (which absorbed Cowork) and Google's Gemini agent.

What an agent can typically do:

• research across the web and your connected apps;
• create documents, spreadsheets and slides;
• run on a schedule (every Monday) or a trigger (a new email);
• keep working after you close your laptop;
• ask for your approval before important actions.

How to delegate well: give the outcome, the audience, the deadline, the sources it may use and what it must not do. Then review the result like you would a new hire's first draft.

What still needs you: judgement, relationships, approvals and anything that moves money or speaks for the company.