Teamwork makes the dream work for the myriad specialized AI agents that may soon be joining offices everywhere.

One of the key questions driving Ece Kamar’s research as managing director of Microsoft’s AI Frontiers Lab is how to coordinate networks of these agents—AI systems that can perform autonomous tasks beyond the scope of chatbots. Late last year, her lab developed AutoGen, a popular open-source tool for creating multi-agent networks, and Microsoft turned it into a low-code studio for businesses earlier this year.

But it’ll likely take a lot more than that for businesses to be comfortable handing over swaths of their operations to fully autonomous systems. Indeed, Kamar, whose 2010 doctorate focused on human-AI collaboration as well as multi-agent systems, said human oversight and accountability will be key.

With the concept of agents ubiquitous on 2025 AI prediction lists, we spoke with Kamar about the future of this tech, the safeguards needed, and the year ahead in AI research.

Keep reading here.—PK

The AV sector is optimistic that a second Trump administration could bring about a federal regulatory framework that would enable wider-scale deployment of self-driving cars on US roads.

Tech Brew caught up with industry analysts and stakeholders on how the process of establishing federal regulations could play out and what could be included.

“Will a federal AV regulatory framework help to spur investor confidence, consumer confidence, customer confidence? Absolutely,” Rich Steiner, VP of government relations for autonomous trucking company Gatik AI, told us. “Whenever the feds weigh into anything, I think it raises the level of confidence across all elements of the ecosystem.”

What we know: Last month, Bloomberg reported that Trump’s transition team was homing in on federal AV regs as a key priority for the Department of Transportation. Details are still in the works, but Bloomberg said federal rules could be established via federal legislation and DOT rulemaking.

One key way the federal government oversees AVs is via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which are minimum requirements all vehicles must comply with. These include, for example, cars having driver controls like steering wheels and pedals––features that driverless cars theoretically don’t need.

Keep reading here.—JG

Just because a company might only have a handful of employees doesn’t mean the next one can’t be an AI.

A pair of recent surveys showed that small businesses are starting to use generative AI in their operations, though maybe not at the same rates as larger counterparts.

A Census Bureau analysis found that very small companies—those with only one to four employees—had the second highest uptick in AI usage since September 2023, behind only corporations of 250 or more workers. The portion of those small businesses adopting AI jumped from 4.6% to 5.8%, and large corporations saw an acceleration from 5.2% to 7.8% in the same period.

Some recent data from American Express attempted to offer more insight into who these small business owners are. The payments company’s own survey showed that millennial and Gen Z small business owners were using AI at a much higher rate than those of Gen X and boomer age (68% versus 45%).

These small business AI adopters may also be more intent on growing in the new year; they were more likely than non-AI businesses to list “upgrading their technology solutions,” boosting market share, and “introducing a new product or service” as goals in the next year. Half of businesses utilizing AI tools expected to expand their headcount, compared with 36% of businesses that have so far eschewed AI.

Keep reading here.—PK

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