The CBS Women's Circle presents
Agents at Work: How AI Systems Take Action in the Real World
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: A venue near Union Square (precise location will be shared with all registrants)
RSVP is required. Need help with your UNI or password? Please use CUIT's alumni UNI tool.
Please join the Columbia Business School Women's Circle for an evening of academic and social programming. Lecturing on his research on decision-making and AI,
Hongseok Namkoong is an assistant professor in the
Decision, Risk, and Operations division at
Columbia Business School and a member of the
Data Science Institute. Following his lecture, guests will have an opportunity to network over light bites and refreshments as well as meet directors from the CBS Women's Circle Board.
This event is limited to CBS alumni only, and registration is required. For guidance regarding your UNI and password, please refer to
CUIT's alumni UNI tool; for additional help, please email
[email protected]. For assistance regarding the event or registration, please reach out to
[email protected].
A note regarding cancellations: refunds will only be issued to those registrants who cancel by Wednesday, October 8. This policy ensures that we can provide an accurate number of anticipated attendees for the venue that evening. Thank you for your understanding.
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Lecture Overview
Agents at Work: How AI Systems Take Action in the Real World
AI is rapidly transforming society, and the most recent frontier lies in agentic systems. While large language models began as powerful compression engines—distilling humanity’s knowledge into natural language interfaces—the real shift comes when these models are coupled with the ability to take actions in the outside world. Today’s agents go beyond chatbots: they can orchestrate complex tool use, autonomously determine sequences of steps, and integrate with APIs to book flights, update spreadsheets, or prepare briefing decks. This session will survey recent advances in agentic systems, from controlled flows to end-to-end automation, and examine how these systems are trained to use tools through simulated environments and reinforcement learning. We will explore both the new opportunities and risks posed by agents—how they reshape workflows and decision-making, how they can reproduce existing power structures, and how organizations might govern, communicate, and mitigate potential harms as agents become embedded in businesses.
