Agents At Your Elbow

Salmex

Hey everyone, it’s your host Salmex here! And this is the very first episode of Founder Mode!

Salmex

The whole idea of this podcast is simple: instead of slogging through long articles and whitepapers, you get all the same thinking in a format you can just ... listen to. Every episode is deeply researched, the scripts are carefully edited, and the goal is to make learning about AI trends, product development, and startups feel more like hanging out than doing homework.

Salmex

Alright, let's dive straight in. So, a couple of years ago, I wrote this... fairly bullish article—I genuinely thought conversational interfaces would start eating up traditional UIs around, what .. 2027, maybe ? Turns out, I underestimated everything. By 2026, it's not just chatbots—people are handing full outcomes over to autonomous agents, like, "Here, schedule my week, figure out the logistics, deal with my emails, and warn me if I'm late." We're way past asking questions; we're literally delegating our workflows to digital teammates. It's wild.

Lachlan Reed

You know, mate, I'll be honest—sometimes I pick a fight with my calendar AI just for kicks. Last Tuesday, I told it, "Oi, I am not that bloke with three 8 a.m. meetings. Fix this." Next thing, my mornings are clear, a couple apology emails drafted, and it's rearranged my stuff with no backtalk. Well, less than I give anyway. It's seriously managing my week better than I can. I mean, that's bonkers, right?

Salmex

Honestly, it's bigger than both of us. Global attention on multi-agent systems exploded—Gartner tossed out this stat, said there was a 1,445% surge in multi-agent system inquiries from Q1 twenty-four to Q2 twenty-five. Not just hype. The entire industry blinked, rubbed their eyes and said, "Oh, it's actually happening."

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, mate, if you'd told me three years ago we'd be chatting here about AIs bossing us around—or well, kind of, you know, running our lives—I would've thought you'd copped too much sun. But here we are.

Salmex

Okay, there's this shift I can't stop thinking about—the leap from tools to teammates. Two years ago, I'd tell people, "AI is a fancy calculator with good grammar." Now? It's an outcome engine. Looking at my workflow, back in 2024 AI was like an intern—I gave it little research tasks, content drafts, or code pairing. Now, early-2026, it's not just helping, it's orchestrating. Agents coordinate tasks, pull in data, adapt workflows, basically own the thing from start to finish. That's orchestration, not just assistance.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, that's spot on. I saw this the other day, too. One of the folks at work had a "presentation" meeting, and I peeked in. But instead of flipping through slides they’d prepped, they were just talking to their AI co-pilot. The thing was building slides on the fly, grabbing numbers, even suggesting what points to hit next. Like, the meeting itself became the user interface, with AI handling the grunt work as they went—no faffing around with tabs or menus.

Salmex

That’s the heart of it. The interface basically disappears—outcomes are the goal, the agents just get you there. Now we’re seeing “hyper-ideas” instead of “hyper-links”—totally fluid movement from one need to another, all inside an agent-powered conversation. You say it, it does it, the UI just keeps up. The old paradigm is, poof, gone.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, and for most people, they’re just starting to twig—that the chatbot isn’t just a shortcut for random help. It’s morphing into this always-there teammate that learns your rhythms, remembers what you want, and actually does the job. It’s like, mate, if Clippy actually got clever and never left.

Salmex

Let’s crack open the next bit—the stuff I’ve been hyped about for ages: multimodality. The old view was “conversational AI equals typing in a box.” Nah. Now, it’s voice, vision, even gestures. Multimodal is the baseline, not the fancy upgrade. It happened sooner than I dared predict in my article, to be honest. Voice, especially—suddenly, everyone’s in on this new race: OpenAI, Google, and now even Apple’s getting keen with Siri, as they just announced an integration with Gemini. And the difference? The voice interfaces actually work. That’s new.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, but look, I gotta be upfront. I tried yelling at my phone a few years ago — Siri, Alexa, you name it—it just got me embarrassment and wrong answers. Now, you’ve got stuff like Whisper and voice mode in all AI chatbots that actually sort your request properly, respond in full sentences, and remember what you said five minutes ago. Even my dad’s having proper chats with a chatbot, and he still calls Spotify “the radio,” mate.

Salmex

That’s a real leap, too—because this is where “ambient computing” becomes real. Not just a tool you launch; it’s around you, on your headphones, in your car dash, your kitchen lights—everywhere. And if you’re not comfortable talking, type it and get the response through your headset. Multimodal means more access, less friction, and it’s finally not awkward. And honestly, this stuff is live, not some five-year roadmap. That gets me fired up.

Lachlan Reed

It’s true. It’s not the future anymore—it’s in your pocket, and your lounge room, and your office, whether you like it or not. If it gets me out of more awkward Zoom calls, I’ll say thanks twice.

Salmex

Yeah, and this is where the builders in the crowd want to scribble notes—you can’t just slap a chatbot onto your product and call it agentic. The UX playbook got wiped. “Good” looks totally different in 2026. It’s about context, anticipation, and zero-friction flows. Conversation is the interface, but also the experience. That’s a mindshift.

Lachlan Reed

I use Granola -the note taking app- for every meeting — it syncs before the call even starts, pulls context about who's on the line, then auto-generates notes the second we hang up. I literally never touch a notes app anymore. That's exactly what you're talking about. The app just... disappears into the work.

Salmex

Exactly! Or Cursor, the AI code editor that reads your entire codebase and suggests entire blocks before you finish typing. Then there's Cleo, the AI financial coach that predicts when you're about to overspend and nudges you before you even open your banking app. That's zero-friction in 2026: apps that work around you, not the other way around.

Lachlan Reed

Mate, there’s no more endless menus or switching apps for every micro-task. The apps that win now are the ones where AI just sort of… sits beside you, listens, and jumps in when you need help. It almost feels rude if your agent doesn’t learn your style after a week. Which is pretty funny coming from me, because—well—you’re literally listening to an AI-made podcast right now. So if I start finishing your sentences by next week, don’t be alarmed. Just means the training’s going well ...

Salmex

And that’s a meta-level shift, right? AI isn’t just front-of-house, it can work behind the scenes. So, the products that matter now figure out where that agentic layer adds daily value. My mantra: audit your workflow, spot the friction, embed a conversational agent right there. The faster you get to natural interaction, the more people will want to stay. And it all comes down to designing for users who prefer chat, voice, whatever—zero judgement, just intuition. That’s how you futureproof UX now.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, so for people listening—whether you’re build, creating content, wrangling warehouse inventories—it’s about making the AI feel less like a visitor and more like an old mate. That’s the gold standard now. At least until agents start demanding lunch breaks.

Salmex

So, here’s the fun part. Where are we heading by the end of 2026? If you made me place honest bets: Agents coordinating not just work, but multi-agent teams—like, your product manager AI meets your legal AI meets your customer AI. UX driven totally by conversation, in whatever medium you need—voice, text, AR overlays. Maybe physical world meets digital, where agents can see, hear, and act on your behalf in real time. No rigid apps. Just ambient, everywhere assistance.

Lachlan Reed

I reckon in a couple of years, the weirdest thing will be booting up a screen without an agent running the show. Like, “Oh, you still poke around in spreadsheets yourself? Good on ya.” If they can get my shed tools to organise themselves, that’s when I’ll believe the revolution’s done.

Salmex

Here’s what gets me—every leap has been faster than we all guessed. The old UI “pages and links” paradigm is toast. Conversation—the fluid transfer of ideas, requests, outcomes—is the new interface. If you’re building, start embedding, start listening to real work, and don’t be afraid to move early. The future’s already in the room. We’re just catching up.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, couldn’t say it better. That’s us for today, folks—get building, stay curious, and remember: even if your agent seems smarter than you, you got here first. Salmex, pleasure as always, mate.

Salmex

Loved every minute, Lachlan. And for everyone listening, if you want the show notes, links to the tools, apps, and research we mentioned today, head over to salmenhq.com/podcast — everything’s there waiting for you.

Salmex

Catch you—and all our listeners—next time on Salmex Founder Mode. Stay agentic, friends. Goodbye ! ...