Managing AI Agents: The Next High-Value Skill Set

AI agents are changing the way work gets done.

As agentic AI systems become more capable, our real advantage will not come from technical proficiency. Our advantage will come from knowing how to manage AI agents well.

The ability to scope agentic projects, manage autonomous systems, evaluate their performance, and design the information environments that make agents effective - these are the skills of the future.

This free intermediate-level presentation is for proficient AI operators, team leaders, and decision-makers who want to understand the next layer of AI capability.

In this session, you will learn:

• what AI agents are, and how they differ from simple chat-based tools

• which new skills matter when agents start taking action on your behalf

• how organisations can identify useful agentic projects

• what tools can be used to build agent harnesses

• what it takes to manage, monitor, and improve AI agents in production

• why context engineering, system prompts, and performance evaluation are becoming core professional capabilities

A variety of AI agentic toolsets will be reviewed, including Claude Cowork, Copilot Agents, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and OpenClaw.

This event is part of TechWeekNZ and is hosted by local AI Agent expert Caelan Huntress. This educational event is a prerequisite to the two advanced workshop series in the AI Coaching Academy for intermediate-to-advanced AI operators:

1. AI Agent Accelerator - AI 301-304 - A four-workshop series that takes you through the SAGE framework, so you can Scope, Automate, Generate, and Evaluate agentic output.

2. Advanced Agent Operations - AI 305-308 - A four-workshop series for teams ready to manage AI agents in production, and take advantage of exponential opportunities right away

If you want to understand where AI is going next, and what skills your team will need to stay ahead, this free presentation on Managing AI Agents is the place to start.