How AI for the enterprise is evolving, from owning a task to owning an outcome: 1. Assistant: handles one task in seconds, like sending a follow-up email. Companies pay for it out of their software budget. 2. Agent: handles one interaction in minutes, like a customer's refund call. It takes on work people used to do, so it gets paid for out of the labor budget. 3. Long-running agent: works toward a goal for weeks or months, like getting an injured client the biggest settlement possible. Because it owns the result, the company selling it can price on the outcome it delivers. Full piece from a16z's @dhaber on long-running agents in high-value customer journeys: https://www.a16z.news/p/winning-the-relay-race-long-running