There are fears that AI could end up eliminating many jobs, but in the near term, it’s much more likely that it’ll fundamentally change how work is done.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently shared a compelling vision of how professionals will interact with artificial intelligence in the coming years, introducing what he calls a new paradigm of “macro delegation and micro steering.” Rather than replacing human workers, Nadella believes AI will create entirely new workflows that combine increasing automation with human oversight and decision-making—fundamentally reimagining the nature of knowledge work itself.
“I think there will be levels of automation that will be stunning five years from now, 10 years from now, when we look back at it. But they will be people (involved),” Nadella said, emphasizing his conviction that human agency will remain central to the workplace of the future.
The Microsoft chief executive offered a vivid metaphor to explain how this new relationship with AI might function in practice: “I have this new metaphor or paradigm of how I work with AI as macro delegation and micro steering. So I delegate to a bunch of agents. Let’s say I get up in the morning and I say to agents, do this work for me, and then I just go. They go off and do their work.”
But this isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it scenario. “Guess what? They come back and report to me,” Nadella continued. “I mean, at the end of the day they’ll say, oh, I got this done. I got stuck here. I need your guidance here. I need your help here, or what have you.”
This agent-based workflow, according to Nadella, will require entirely new interfaces and tools. “Guess what? What do I need? I need a new inbox. A new inbox to deal with, not emails, but now with all the agent micro steering. So as somebody said to me, you know, the future of software is going to be all about a new inbox, a new messaging tool, and a new cursor on a blank canvas. And I think that’s what we will do.”
Despite the increasing sophistication of AI systems, Nadella remains adamant that human involvement will be essential. “Humans will need an interface to AI, even with increasing levels of automation. There will be productivity, there’ll be levels of abstraction, but I do think human agency is going to be very much part of it.”
Nadella’s vision aligns with broader trends across the technology industry. Former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang had said that AI would cause everyone to be promoted to ‘manager’, and systems would need humans to manage them. Elon Musk had taken this a step further, saying that people in the future will primarily be managing robots.
The “macro delegation, micro steering” framework also reflects a growing recognition that successful AI implementation isn’t about full automation but about creating effective human-AI collaboration. Early enterprise AI deployments have shown that the most successful implementations maintain human oversight at critical junctures—exactly the kind of “micro steering” Nadella describes. As AI agents become more capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks, the professional’s role may evolve from doing the work directly to orchestrating and guiding AI systems—making strategic decisions, providing context, and intervening when needed. If Nadella’s vision proves accurate, the inbox of the future won’t be filled with emails from colleagues, but with status updates, questions, and requests for guidance from a team of AI agents working on your behalf.