How Top Entrepreneurs Leverage AI Agents to Outperform Competitors.

he Diary of a CEO podcast, host Steven Bartlett, joined by Amjad Masad, Bret Weinstein, and Daniel Priestley, delved into the transformative potential of AI and AI agents.

Their discussion illuminated how AI is reshaping education, the future of work, and society at large, while also highlighting the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Below, I’ve crafted a blog organized by key themes—education, the future of work, AI agents, and AI’s broader implications—incorporating the most impactful quotes to capture the essence of their insights.

Education: AI as the Ultimate Tutor

AI’s potential to revolutionize education lies in its ability to deliver personalized, one-on-one tutoring, a method proven to produce exceptional outcomes.

The panel highlighted that traditional education interventions yield marginal improvements.

“there’s only one intervention… that creates two standard deviation positive outcomes in education… and that is one-on-one tutoring”.

AI can simulate this by adapting to each student’s learning pace and style, making high-quality education accessible to all.

For example, Priestley shared how his son uses AI tools like Synthesis for engaging learning experiences: “My son was learning about division and it’s asking him to smash glass and how many pieces he smashes it into with this hammer… ‘No Xander, go for it, really smash it’”.

This interactive approach makes learning fun and effective, simulating the benefits of a personal tutor. However, the panel noted a digital divide, with tech-savvy families adopting AI tools while others.

Key Takeaway: AI can democratize elite education through personalized tutoring, but equitable access is critical to prevent widening disparities.

Redefining Roles and Opportunities

AI is set to disrupt routine, repetitive jobs, creating both challenges and opportunities. The panel predicted that jobs like data entry, quality assurance, and certain accounting roles are at high risk:

“If your job is as routine as it comes, your job is gone in the next couple years”

Women and those with only a high school diploma face disproportionate risk, with “80% of working women in an at-risk job compared to just over 50% of men” and “jobs requiring only a high school diploma have an automation risk of 80%”

Yet, AI also empowers new roles and entrepreneurial ventures. Humans will remain in the “creative seat,” orchestrating AI agents to handle mundane tasks:

“We are controlling swarms of intelligent beings to do our job… you’re going to launch like a thousand SDRs [sales representatives] to grab as many leads as possible”.

This shift allows workers to focus on strategy and innovation, but it requires continuous skill acquisition, as “you have to continuously acquire new skills” to stay relevant

Key Takeaway: AI will automate routine jobs but create opportunities for those who adapt and leverage it for creative and strategic roles.

Empowering the Thousandfold Entrepreneur

AI agents—autonomous software entities—are transforming entrepreneurship by enabling rapid innovation.

Masad shared how his platform, Replit, has facilitated “3 million applications built purely in natural language” since September, with “300,000-400,000… deployed in a real site”.

Priestley’s experience exemplifies this: “I built an application to track how my kids earn pocket money… within 15 minutes it had created this application… something we would have charged five to ten thousand pounds to create”

These agents amplify entrepreneurial potential, creating what the panel called the “thousandfold entrepreneur”:

“The best entrepreneur that can leverage those agents could be a thousand times better than someone who doesn’t have the grit, doesn’t have the skill, doesn’t have the ambition”.

However, this power comes with a catch—AI’s dual nature can distract as much as it empowers: “AI has two superpowers: one superpower is to distract people… and the other superpower is to make you hyper-creative”

Key Takeaway: AI agents enable unprecedented entrepreneurial leverage, but success depends on using them creatively rather than falling into distraction.

The Diary of a CEO discussion paints AI as a catalyst for a “human phase transition”, offering tools to revolutionize education, work, and entrepreneurship. From enabling personalized tutoring to empowering “thousandfold entrepreneurs,” AI unlocks unprecedented possibilities.

Yet, its risks—inequality, job displacement, and potential misuse—demand proactive management.

The panel’s message is clear: embrace AI now to stay ahead. As Priestley advised, “Start moving now, start building things… this moment of time is the least competitive”.

Whether you’re teaching your kids to create with AI, building a business, or rethinking your career, the future belongs to those who harness AI’s creative power while navigating its challenges.