The first commercial video calling product was called Picture Phone, and it was launched in 1964 by Bell Labs at the world science fair. It was a device with a screen and camera that allowed people to call and see each other simultaneously. The product was scrapped within a year due to "limited demand", "very small market size" and very slow traction. They concluded that people preferred calls without video because it "was weird" for them to see each other as they were talking. The Picture Phone had a limitation from a connectivity standpoint as well, forcing customers to wire every PicturePhone with each other. These made the tests and customer experience extremely limited as they could only do "Picture Phoning" with people in the same building.
In hindsight, we see this was the wrong conclusion. The limitations of the technology hindered the experience, but they mistook an execution failure for a failure of the idea itself. People do this all the time, the kill the baby before it's given a chance. I think this is happening again with remote work.
Remote work is the future of work because AI is the future of work, and there's nothing more "remote" than AI. Artificial intelligence's power isn't just in assisting users by answering their questions. The power of AI is putting it to work in an automatic fashion. To trigger its reasoning and problem solving capabilities automatically as work comes into the workplace. We call this Automatic Artificial Intelligence. Putting AI to work automatically is orders of magnitude harder than using it as a user, because it requires ensuring the AI is correct most of the time, that every step can be audited, and that performance metrics are available in near real-time.
The human beings that can deploy Automatic Artificial Intelligence will have an insurmountable advantage over those who can't. They can scale infinitely their problem solving, working on multiple aspects of the business in parallel, instantaneously. Humans that work by themselves on the other hand must work in sequence, with biological time— which is slower and costlier. Not knowing how to deploy AI to work automatically will soon (1-3 years) be equivalent to not knowing how to use a cell phone, a browser, the internet, or Excel. It makes no sense to hire someone that can't use the internet or a cell phone.
Many companies are enforcing "back to the office" mandates, with Amazon being the latest example. I believe their leadership may be underestimating the profound changes AI will bring as it scales across organizations. Rather than embracing the future, they seem intent on forcing the new world to go back and conform how it used to be. Imagine a leader in 1907, insisting employees to not use telephones because he finds face to face communication much better. Instead, he asks them to visit the office and wait in line. Convenient for the manager but incredibly inefficient for the employee.
Smart people today have countless ways to make money. They'll choose jobs that fit their lifestyle. If they want to travel, they will. If they want to stay home with their kids, they will. Jobs that help them achieve that will attract the best talent. Forcing employees to adapt their lifestyles to the job is no longer a viable strategy to capture the best talent, therefore, its deadly to your business. You'll push away smart, talented, entrepreneurial employees and be left with those who have no other choice.
Moreover, capable people who know how to deploy AI aren't constrained to a single office. They're creating workflows where AI gets triggered properly, delivers the right results, and impacts the organization. This demands thinking remote-first. It means clearly defining the inputs and outputs of the jobs to be done. It requires viewing the company not as a hierarchy or org chart but as an orchestra of engines that come together to deliver the end result. Because they can scale their workflows infinitely, AI-competent people will, by default, work remotely.
As a CEO, I faced this challenge myself. I wanted to work in an office, but the talent I needed refused. I scheduled multiple meetings each week to stay connected, but they quickly became a source of frustration for my team, wasting time and causing unnecessary friction. Eventually, I realized the problem wasn’t with them—it was with me. I couldn’t shake the anxiety of not knowing exactly what was happening or how things were getting done.
I’ve always admired how armies operate and often look to them for inspiration. Armies win wars remotely; they can't rely on everyone being in the same room. Instead, they deploy forces across different locations, giving clear orders and trusting them to execute autonomously.
As a small startup, each person owns a critical piece of our business, and so we adopted a similar approach. Now, we have just one Monday morning meeting, lasting 90 minutes. We review progress, align on priorities, and then everyone executes on their own time. That’s it. No more micromanagement. Just focused execution. Over time, we’ve come to love this way of working. It pushes the company forward while allowing us to enjoy the lifestyles we want to pursue. Of course, as we scale, this system may evolve, but we have to force ourselves to making remote-first work, regardless of our size.
The future of work is remote. Embracing AI and remote collaboration isn’t just a strategic advantage; it’s essential. Those who adapt will thrive, and those who don’t...
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