Always-On AI Agents Become Expected Infrastructure

The shift from Claude Code as novelty to expected baseline—where developers feel anxious without an agent running continuously—mirrors earlier adoption curves for Slack and cloud services. Friction has inverted: the cost of not using AI now exceeds the cost of using it. This changes hiring expectations, project timelines, and what skills command a premium. Developers who orchestrate agent work rather than execute it directly gain advantage. Enterprises that delay standardizing agent platforms risk internal capability gaps against what workers expect from consumer tools.