What happens when automation becomes a partner—not a replacement for people?
Debates about AI agents in the workplace raise provocative questions about the nature of work and the future of the humans who do that work. In part two of Jason’s conversation with the team from Workd, Chris Van Ittersum, CEO and co-founder, and Ryan Carroll, director of development, share real-world value propositions for distributors and their employees.
If you missed part one of our fascinating conversation and live demo, now is a great time to review.
“This technology is the great equalizer,” says Chris, referring to a stable of AI agents that the Workd team has created. Workd’s voice-powered AI agent responds less like a cumbersome input tool and more like an assistant with an exceptional ear for detail, managing reams of information across the systems you already own (ERP, CRM, etc).
“The more you talk to it, the more it’s going to learn,” notes Ryan. The tech is truly generative; no static, pre-programmed response loops. Instead, as the AI agent gains familiarity with its human counterpart’s syntax and needs (think: tone, context, pacing), the relationship “grows.” The AI agent can provide more meaningful insights in less time than it takes to bring a new hire up to speed.
All this adaptability pushes our discussion into the realm of sci-fi. As the Workd AI agent learns your knowledge, behavior, and even mannerisms, could it eventually act as your professional “clone”? Ryan offers a less creepy interpretation. “Companies don’t want to lose their 20-year veteran who holds all the relationships,” he says. Authorized likeness agreements between distributor and employee––akin to the NIL (name, image, likeness) deals in college sports––could serve as a financial boost for both sides.
“From a cost standpoint, the agent is tremendously economical,” says Chris, who observes that the overall savings rarely translate to massive employee layoffs. Rather than eliminating jobs, Workd’s AI agents are more likely to reshape them. “What we try to focus on is how do we get the highest and best value out of the team members? All these companies want to be as lean as possible,” Chris observes, “But they also want to grow. They wanna service their accounts better, smarter, faster.”
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QUOTES – Chris Van Ittersum
“It turns out that the humans want to do things that they wanna do the great job, they don’t wanna do the busy grunt work type jobs. Right? So, let’s free up that human ingenuity and put it into places where it is gonna thrive.”
“If the agent can add to that ecosystem in a way and in a manner in which you’re getting more value out of the team that you have, the natural expectation that you would have that you’re gonna cut the team, that actually doesn’t generally happen. What we find is these guys will invest in the growth of the team.”
QUOTES – Ryan Carroll
“We have quite a stable of agents that are very capable, that have a lot of tools built that they can use to do a lot of the tasks that people need, that are high value, and if there’s one that we don’t have, then, I mean, those are conversations we love to have.”
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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals.
This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios
Special thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Connected Peers, providing virtual communities for wholesale distributors; and INxSQL Distribution Software, an integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.
