By Jared Spataro
Publication Date: 2026-05-05 10:00:00
Spend time with any software development team now and you will see something worth paying attention to. In recent years, the way software is built has transitioned through four different patterns of human-agent collaboration – and the same patterns are beginning to emerge in other functions of the enterprise.
- Author: You produce the work and call on AI to help when needed – a line of code, a sentence, a diagram.
- Editor: You set the intent and the AI creates the first draft for you to edit and approve.
- Director: You create a specification and hand over entire tasks to the AI to run in the background.
- Orchestrator: You design a system in which multiple agents run in parallel in a workflow and report exceptions and escalations to you.
Every business leader knows that the world is changing, but far fewer have a clear idea of what to do about it. These four patterns are the starting point. The real work ahead for leaders is to redesign their company’s operating model around…
