The next decade of work won’t be defined by automation. It will be determined by orchestration.

That’s the central message coming out of leaders like Ryan Gavin at Slack, and it should be your wake-up call as we enter a world where every employee, from interns to executives, arrives with a team of AI teammates at their side.

The shift is already underway. Some companies are pretending it isn’t happening. Others are waiting for “the right tools.” The most forward-leaning organizations are doing something different. They’re redesigning work around the idea that the individual contributor model is dead.

The winners will be those who learn to direct, coordinate, and amplify the capabilities around them. The losers will be those who cling to the idea that effort creates value.

Slack’s vision gives us a clear signal.
Ice Station Zebra’s internal AI stack makes it real.

Let’s break down what this transformation actually looks like and how leaders, teams, and individuals should prepare.

For more than a century, companies have paid people to do.
Complete tasks. Produce output. Move work forward.

AI breaks this model.
Not because it replaces work, but because it changes the unit of production.

In the agentic era:

Gavin describes this as the largest productivity unlock in modern history, and he’s right. When every employee has access to instant design, instant analytics, instant development, instant writing, and instant research through AI teammates, the advantage shifts to the people who know how to orchestrate, not grind.

This is not theoretical. It’s already happening.

Slack is positioning itself as the conversational work platform for AI agents, and its principles are simple:

Agents should remove cognitive drag, not add more decisions.

Agents should behave like teammates that operate inside channels where work already happens.

Adoption comes from showing employees what they can do now that they couldn’t before.

Your job is no longer “doing tasks.”
It’s understanding what capabilities to deploy and when.

This framing lines up directly with the philosophy behind Signals in the Noise. The future doesn’t belong to the most technical person in the room. It belongs to the one who:

That’s orchestration.

We already run this way at Ice Station Zebra.

Instead of waiting for the future, we built it:

The result is a team model where:

This is the orchestration model Slack describes, but at the scale of a single operator directing eight specialized agents as teammates.

This is what work will feel like for everyone in the next three to five years.

The most valuable skill in the next decade is not:

It’s the ability to combine these capabilities through AI teammates.

Orchestrators understand:

This is a leadership skill.
And it’s teachable.

People who develop it early will see career acceleration unlike anything in the last generation.

If you manage a team, you’re facing two urgent responsibilities.

Your people must feel safe experimenting without risking embarrassment or replacement anxiety.

Reward clarity, problem framing, and orchestration, not raw output.

If agents can perform analysis, writing, drafting, or testing, let them.
Your people should focus on judgment.

Gavin is blunt about this. Self-awareness is the foundation of modern leadership.
People need to understand how they think, how they communicate, and how they receive feedback.

Marketing is product. Product is marketing.
Security is technology. Technology is operations.
Everything blends in a high-velocity environment.

Leaders who keep departments siloed will get outpaced.

Most companies believe their productivity problem is a technology problem.
It isn’t.
It’s a friction problem.

Cognitive drag shows up as:

AI doesn’t just automate tasks.
It removes the friction that destroys momentum.

Slack’s agent integration and ISZ’s internal stack both demonstrate the same principle:

That’s not about dumbing work down.
It’s about elevating attention to the things that matter.

A future employee’s first day may include:

A 22-year-old will be able to:

The value comes from directing the capabilities, not performing them manually.

Careers will move horizontally faster.
Specialization will matter less.
Adaptability and orchestration will matter more.

This mirrors Gavin’s point:
There is no “right path.”
There is only the work you can direct into outcomes.

If you want to thrive in an AI-transformed workplace, focus on:

Clear questions produce clear outcomes.

Learn how to direct AI teammates with precision.

Spot weak signals, early indicators, and emerging opportunities.

You don’t need deep technical expertise, but you must know what’s possible.

Your attention is your most important asset.
The orchestrator role demands it.

A short list of behaviors that will sink teams in the agent era:

Managers who cling to control will lose their talent first.
Managers who embrace orchestration will outperform even with smaller teams.

We’re entering a work environment where:

Slack sees this clearly.
At Ice Station Zebra, we’re living it.

Your career, your team, and your organization will either adapt to this shift or get outpaced by those who do.

The good news?
You can start the transition today.