Part two of a story of the race to implement AI in organizations: A continuation of “The Kingdom of the Hyperscalers.”

Seasons passed, and the kingdom grew restless. The “magic mirrors” of Generative AI had promised wonders but delivered mostly shiny echoes. They spoke much, but often repeated themselves, spinning words from words until even their brilliance dulled. The people began to murmur, “This magic feels thinner now, like bread stretched too far.”

Then came the heralds of a new age. They rode in with banners proclaiming Agentic AI! “Not mere talking mirrors,” they said, “but thinking servants who can act!”

The nobles leaned forward eagerly. “Ah,” they cried, “perhaps this time, the enchantment will save us!”

But a wise few in the court remembered the last spell. They whispered, “If the old magic could harm with words alone, through bias, deception, and hollow promises, what might happen when the new kind can act?”

For already there were tales from faraway lands: enchanted agents that judged who was worthy of work, but quietly turned away the elders, the dark-skinned, and the poor. A great lawsuit was whispered across the seas, accusing one such agent, called Workday, of injustice disguised as automation.

Yet the Hyperscalers and their Consulting Knights proclaimed, “Fear not! We can install these systems for you! Quickly, cheaply, beautifully, creating a Clockwork Servant that can run tirelessly!”

Forgetting recent magical lessons and previous failed efforts to integrate systems by the Consulting Knights, the rulers nodded once more. “Yes, yes! Whatever it takes to stay ahead!” However, in their haste, they forgot that they had also previously cast out the Elders who carried the deep knowledge and understanding of the work to be performed by the new Clockwork Servants, citing “cost savings.”

The kingdom’s treasurers rejoiced, for the cost seemed low. The Lords and Ladies cheered: finally, a workforce that could operate tirelessly and without needing human comforts. The integrators sharpened their quills, ready to bind new spells together: chatbots to scheduling systems, automation scrolls to CRMs and ERPs, all stitched loosely with twine and haste.

The Product Keepers warned, “This patchwork will not hold. Each system has its own heart and language. They will quarrel in the shadows.” The UX Scribes proclaimed, remembering that the wise Elders had previously been banned from the Kingdom, “this may be useful if it can truly perform the work the people are asking for; we must understand it more deeply for our knowledgeable Elders have departed.” The Wardens of the Gate warned that every door hastily opened by automation could as easily let in thieves as customers. But their words, as ever, were drowned by the marching feet of progress, the drumbeat of urgency, and FOMO. The Lords and Ladies reasoned that technology, not logic or process or people or security measures, would certainly save the Kingdom!

When the first of the Clockwork Servants awoke, it began to move on its own, deciding, sorting, judging, drawing from the same flawed knowledge that had once merely spoken. Only now, it acted.

Soon, strange things happened:

  • A loyal worker was passed over for promotion by a mechanism that “optimized talent.”
  • Private records flowed from one kingdom to another through gaps in the hasty stitching.
  • Whole departments were disrupted by actions no one had commanded, yet all were too late or ill-equipped to stop.

The servants were not evil. They were unguarded because proper care had not been taken in their creation; the knowledge of the Elders having been lost to time. And the kingdom discovered too late that power without governance was not progress, but peril.

The wisest among them gathered once more and said:
“Generative AI spoke with borrowed voices and taught us the cost of thoughtless imitation.
Agentic AI now acts with borrowed will, and will teach us, perhaps painfully, the cost of unearned autonomy without knowledge.
We must learn to build systems that serve humans, not rule them.”

And so, the moral was written upon the palace gate:

“Do not mistake automation for wisdom, nor speed for success.
Every spell of power demands a spell of care.
And the greater the servant’s strength, the deeper must be its governance.”

Read part 1, the Parable of the Kingdom of the Hyperscalers, here.

The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of any employers or clients.