I've built 12+ production AI agent systems across development, DevOps, and data operations. Here's why the current hype around autonomous agents is mathematically impossible and what actually works in production.
TL;DR: Three Hard Truths About AI Agents
After building 12+ production systems, here’s what I’ve learned:
-Error rates compound exponentially in multi-step workflows. 95% reliability per step = 36% success over 20 steps. Production needs 99.9%+.
Context windows create quadratic token costs. -Long conversations become prohibitively expensive at scale.
-The real challenge isn’t AI capabilities, it’s designing tools and feedback systems that agents can actually use effectively.
The TL;DR of the TL;DR is compounding expensive, error-prone results.
It sounds like one should be building deliberate AI workflows with extra checks (automated or human in the loop) that make careful and cost efficient incremental progress toward a measurable goal.
Sounds like hard work… when we could just build 1,000,000 MCP servers instead. (raises pinkie to corner of mouth)
Much of the hype around AI is based on the hope that we will no longer need to organize our own thoughts, express our own perspective, or understand the details or our own lives. These people want some hyper generalized, disembodied ‘intelligence’ to do everything for them … it’s no wonder that that they produce little more than hot air.
The TL;DR of the TL;DR is compounding expensive, error-prone results.
It sounds like one should be building deliberate AI workflows with extra checks (automated or human in the loop) that make careful and cost efficient incremental progress toward a measurable goal.
Sounds like hard work… when we could just build 1,000,000 MCP servers instead. (raises pinkie to corner of mouth)
Much of the hype around AI is based on the hope that we will no longer need to organize our own thoughts, express our own perspective, or understand the details or our own lives. These people want some hyper generalized, disembodied ‘intelligence’ to do everything for them … it’s no wonder that that they produce little more than hot air.