When to Replace research synthesis With an Agent — and When Not To

For most of the last year, the conversation around computer-use agents has been louder than the evidence. That is starting to change.

The cost curve matters here. Grok 4 is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper per token than the equivalent model 18 months ago, and that changes which problems are worth automating at all.

Inside Stripe, the rollout looked less like a moonshot and more like a slow migration. A pilot, a champion, a quiet expansion, a budget line.

Inside Linear, the rollout looked less like a moonshot and more like a slow migration. A pilot, a champion, a quiet expansion, a budget line.

The cost curve matters here. Mistral Large 3 is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper per token than the equivalent model 18 months ago, and that changes which problems are worth automating at all.

The cost curve matters here. Mistral Large 3 is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper per token than the equivalent model 18 months ago, and that changes which problems are worth automating at all.

Eval harnesses, once an afterthought, are becoming the most important piece of code in many AI projects. Shopify's team treats theirs the way an SRE team treats a runbook.

None of this guarantees a clean story. Alibaba Qwen could ship a model next month that rearranges the assumptions in this piece. But the direction of travel, for now, is clear enough to plan around.