# Six High-Value Skills for the Agentic Business Era

**Podcast:** The Startup Ideas Podcast
**Published:** 2026-06-25

## Transcript

Imagine it's a few years from now.
AI can build almost anything, rate almost anything, and do most of the tasks people used to get paid for.
In that world, I gotta ask, what skill is still valuable?
I've been thinking about this non-stop, and I've narrowed it down to six core skills.
None of them require a fancy degree or connections, and all of them could be started this weekend.
And every single one of them gets more valuable as AI gets better, not less.
By the end of this episode, you'll learn the six most valuable skill sets on the planet with some tips to get started.
I'm going to go through each of them super clearly so you understand where the world is going, what you need to learn, and just concretely how to get started.
Let's not waste any time and let's go right through it.
So the first skill that I think is the most valuable skill right now is people who can set up agents.
properly, manage them, and run local AI models.
This is basically the grown-up version of prompt engineering.
So a lot of people learned how to type a good prompt into ChatGPT, which is useful.
But the next layer is being able to design a little AI employee that has context, that has tools, that has permissions, that has memory, that has a goal, and a way to check its own work before it bothers you.
That skill.
that little skill is going to be valuable because most companies are about to have the exact same problem.
They're going to have 10 AI tools, 50 workflows, a bunch of half-working automations, and nobody understands how to turn that into an operating system, which is what they really want.
The person who can walk in and say, hey, here's a customer support agent, here's a research agent, here's the sales follow-up agent, here are all...
are all the rules.
Here's what it's allowed to do.
Here's where it needs approval.
Here's how we know if it's working.
That person becomes really, really hard to replace.
And the local AI part, which I've talked about on this channel before, I've done a couple videos on it, is important because there are certain workflows where privacy or cost, you know, the prices of these models are going up and up, latency or control matter a lot.
If you could run these models locally with something like Olama, LM Studio, you start to understand what can happen on your own machine and what needs the cloud and what needs to touch private docs and what should stay behind the wall and how this all interacts.
So I think this whole idea around local is going to be more and more important as time goes on.
Even if, because a lot of people in the comments will say, well, local models are going to go smaller.
Even if local models go smaller, You learn the architecture for the future.
You learn which jobs need a giant brain and which jobs just need a reliable worker that never sleeps.
So what would I do?
What's a rep I would do to learn this skill set?
The first rep I would do is simple.
Build a daily briefing agent for yourself.
Give it three sources.
Give it your calendar.
Give it a folder of notes.
And give it a few saved links.
And its job is to tell you what matters today, what decisions are waiting for you, and what follow-ups you owe people.
Then you can add one rule.
You can say it has to show sources and ask for approval before sending anything.
That one project teaches you context.
It teaches you retrieval.
It teaches you tool use.
It teaches you permissions.
And it teaches you evals.
So it might sound small and maybe a boring first agent to build, but I believe that that is basically the shape of every serious agent inside a company.
The mistake people, I think, make is they try to build an all-knowing agent first, these really big agent projects.
The better move is basically just to build a small agent to start, get it to be very valuable, schedule it, have a clear success metric.
And the success metric might be, did it save me 10 minutes?
Did it catch something I would have missed?
Did it produce something I would have actually used?
If the answer is yes, then you're learning the skill.
So that's the first super, super valuable skill.
And by the way, this is in no particular order.
These are just the six that, you know, the more you know, the better.
The second skill is marketers who know how to build distribution.
I think this one is underrated because people confuse distribution with posting.
Distribution is way more deeper than just like posting on social media.
It's knowing where attention already lives, what people are already anxious about, what language they use when they describe the problem, and how to turn that into trust before you ask them to buy anything.
In an AI world, we all know building products...
is really easy.
Building demand is just getting more and more important.
So when anyone can ship a landing page or an app or build a SaaS, the bottleneck moves to the question of can you make people care?
And that's where someone who's really good at distribution is a pro app.
So the marketers who are going to win in this agentic era are going to be part researcher, they're going to be part storyteller, they're going to be part media operator, and they're going to be a part community builder.
They're basically going to know how to take one insight and turn it into a tweet, a short form video, a YouTube title, a newsletter angle, a landing page headline.
a founder story, and a sales conversation.
So in a sense, it's almost like a marketer is becoming like a generalist marketer.
We're seeing this as a greater trend.
People are becoming generalists.
They can do multiple things because if their job is to manage agents, they need to understand different components of that.
And that's exactly what's happening in the distribution marketing world.
So the first rep I would do if I'm trying to learn distribution is I would do a distribution map.
So I'd pick a niche I care about, like dentists using AI or solo consultants, maybe real estate agents, Shopify operators, whatever.
Could be a business that you want to start or you're building already.
Then write down the 20 places their attention goes.
So like the newsletters, the creators they pay attention to, maybe it's like Reddit threads that get popular, Slack groups, podcasts, events, search terms, the tools they already pay for.
After that, write one painful sentence they would actually say out loud.
Something like, I know I should follow up with leads faster, but by the time I sit down and do it, half of them are cold.
That sentence is where distribution starts.
Because you're getting...
you're basically like transporting yourself into their shoes.
Then you should do the second rep.
So the evolution of this.
Write 20 hooks for the same idea.
Make some curiosity hooks, some fear hooks, some status hooks, some money hooks, some I wish I knew this earlier hooks.
If you want to become great at distribution, you don't want to ask yourself, how do I promote this after the product is already done?
So you want to start asking yourself, what existing desire am I pointing this at before you build?
And I think that that shift alone, that mindset is going to change the quality of your ideas.
And that's what makes someone who's really good at distribution in this era.
So TLDR, on distribution is you want to put yourself in their shoes and you want to be this part storyteller, part researcher, part media operator and really just have a lot of shots on net in this world because some are going to win and some aren't going to win.
And on the Startup Ideas podcast, on this channel, I'll share more of these tools as I'm learning in real time.
Feel free to like, comment, and subscribe to get more of this in your feed.
The third most valuable skill is robotics engineers who can basically build hardware, wire in AI, and source manufacturing.
Now I know that most people, probably a very small percentage of people, actually has any in robotics engineers.
But the reason why I put this in here before I explain exactly how to do it is because software was an incredible business for the last 20 years, building SaaS.
And there's still opportunities in building SaaS, building consumer mobile apps, enterprise apps.
But the mode is moving to hardware.
And I'll explain more about this.
And by the way, I think a lot of people are sleeping on this.
Basically, the last decade, the internet rewarded people who moved pixels around.
I was one of those people.
But the next decade is going to reward people who can move atoms around too.
That was my big insight.
It used to be this PhD-feeling thing.
Expensive parts, custom hardwares, weird tooling, long timelines.
You had to go to school, get a PhD in robotics to go and build something like that.
But now the world we live in is a lot different.
You have this open-source robot learning projects.
You have cheap cameras.
You have low-cost arms.
You have better simulation.
You have multi-modal models.
And you have community-sharing data sets.
Companies like Hugging Face, who has LaRobot, which is basically trying to make robot learning more accessible.
And even on Hugging Face, which is almost like the way I think about it is like a database of all these open source projects that you can go and download those repos.
You can find something, some really interesting open source technology and inject it into a robot.
And who knows, that could be the next big thing.
There's low-cost ARM projects like SO100 and the SO101 ecosystem.
And there's also smaller vision language action models like the small VLA that are pushing towards robot policies you can train and run without needing some giant industrial setup.
So the interesting thing here is it goes beyond the AI layer.
It's the person who can make the whole loop.
So can you get a cheap arm on your desk?
Can you mount the camera?
Can you collect demonstrations?
Can you train or fine tune the model?
Can you make the robot repeat one useful task?
Can you look at a supplier listing in China and understand if this thing's actually manufacturable?
So the person that can do all three, the building the hardware, wiring in the AI, sourcing manufacturing, understanding that.
Come on, that is just some skill set to know.
And this is something that I'm learning in real time because I think it's so important.
If I wanted to learn this skill, my first rep would be extremely concrete.
So I would buy or assemble a low-cost robot arm.
You can add a cheap camera to that.
And then I would teach it one boring task, like sorting three objects, pressing a button, or moving it from one tray to another.
Then I would document every failure.
The camera angle was bad maybe, or the lighting changed, maybe the gripper slipped, or the data set was too small.
The model looked smart in one setup and then fell apart when the object moved like two inches.
That's kind of the point.
This is how you learn a skill.
Robotics specifically teaches humility.
humility pretty quickly.
And that's the humility that becomes your expertise.
On the sourcing side, this is really important, I would learn the basics of working with suppliers.
A lot of us listening to this podcast, we're software people, we like digital products, but it's also important to learn physical products too because of all the opportunities that are coming.
So go on Alibaba or a similar marketplace.
I'm not affiliated with Alibaba.
and study how components are sold.
Ask for a sample before you talk about bulk.
You can ask for motor specs.
You can ask for controller board details.
You can ask for CAD files if they exist.
Replacement parts, lead times, minimum order quantity, shipping terms, and a short video of the part doing the exact thing that you need.
So you're going to be learning a new language and the language is, can this actually be made, shipped, repaired and used by a normal person?
This skill is so rare because it sits between worlds.
Software people often avoid hardware.
And hardware people sometimes avoid distribution and AI.
So the person who could connect open source AI models, physical prototyping, and manufacturing has a shot at building things that feel like science fiction, but sell like practical tools.
And I think there's just so much opportunity here.
The fourth undeniable skill to learn right now is curators, so understanding how to curate, who are good at yapping.
and can do short-form video in their sleep.
I'm sure you've seen these people yapping on Instagram, and they're taking over your algorithm.
And I mean yapping in the best possible way.
The internet is drowning in information, and the person who can make sense of it in public is very valuable.
And curation has evolved past, like, here's five links in a newsletter, right?
Curation is like, Here's five products that I think in this niche that you'd really like and explained in a really storytelling, really cool way.
So the curator of the agentic era watches the timeline and says, this matters because...
dot dot dot.
They understand that.
They can see a new model demo or a weird startup launch or a robotics clip, a policy change, a news item, a pricing update, a story about XYZ, and they can translate it for that particular niche.
What should you learn?
What should you ignore?
What should you try this weekend?
What is hype?
What is actually useful?
So to be amazing at content, this is sort of the big insight, which might sound obvious, but the insight is like, You don't need to be super smart to get millions of followers in social media or just, it doesn't even need to be millions.
Get 50,000, 100,000 followers in a niche and build an incredible business around that by creating net new content.
You can just look at what's happening in your niche and curate really interesting things in short form, in an authentic way.
way where you're just yapping to your phone and the algorithms right now are prioritizing yapping why they prioritizing yapping they are prioritizing it because they are seeing ai slot move into the timeline and people are getting tired of that people don't want that right so there's nothing more raw than authentic and being like hey, my name is Greg Eisenberg and I suffered from XYZ until I found these five really interesting products or this story or I met this person that helped me and let me tell you about it.
That is the type of content that the algorithms and the timeline are promoting.
Before I give you the rep, I would say the yapping matters so much.
Learning how to yap is just such a good skill.
And the people who are great at it, frankly, make you feel like you're getting in this group chat of a research report because it's fast, it's opinionated, it's useful and a little entertaining.
You know those people in your niche that you see them yapping and you're like, oh my God, I feel like I know this person, right?
So let's say you wanted to actually become a curator slash yapper or learn about it.
I would do a seven-day curation sprint.
So for one week, pick a lane.
Maybe it's AI agents for real estate.
Maybe it's robotics for small businesses.
You know, whatever niche it is.
But every day, find three things and make one short video using the same structure.
I saw this.
Most people will think it means this.
I think it actually means this.
Here's the move.
That structure forces you to have a take, which is the difference between curation and forwarding links.
The thing with a lot of yappers and curators that do what they do really well is they have a take.
They're either anti something or pro something.
So have a take, right?
The key thing here is you're going to want to build, you know, some people call it a swipe file.
Some people call it a taste file.
Basically a document of examples you love.
Great hooks, great analogies, great titles, weird use cases, comments that reveal what people are genuinely confused about.
Curators are obviously only as good as their taste inputs.
So if your inputs are generic, your outputs are going to be generic.
If your inputs are weird and specific and high signal, people are going to start coming to you and trusting you.
Because you consistently find the thing before they do.
So you're worth the follow.
So that's an incredible skill set to learn.
The next skill set, the fifth skill set, is what I call the building distributor.
So it's the person who can ship both the product and get in front of people.
So this might be the most important skill set if you're a founder, if you want to build a business.
For years, there was this clean split.
One person would build and one person would sell.
You'd have your Wozniak, who was the technical person, and then you'd have your Steve Jobs, who was the marketer salesperson.
One person writes code, one person writes copy.
One person makes the thing, one person gets the attention.
And AI in this agentic world is compressing this split.
So one person now could prototype the product, make the landing page, write the launch thread, make a video about it, record the demo, DM the first 100 users, edit short form clips, iterate based on feedback, pretty much everything.
So that person has leverage because they don't have to wait for the handoff.
They can complete the loop themselves so nothing really gets lost.
So the loop is the whole game.
Because if you build something small and you put it in front of people, watch where they get confused.
Change the product.
Change the story.
Try again.
Most people only do half.
They build it in private forever or they talk about it in public forever and they actually never ship the thing.
The builder distributor learns by cycling between both.
I think this is so cool because I think that when people talk about the one person, one billion dollar Sam Altman talks about it, I think that person is going to be the builder distributor.
And when you start seeing people like Peter who founded OpenClaw, you can tell that he's not only incredible at building, like he built an incredible thing with OpenClaw technically, but he also is, if you go to his ex and you just see how he speaks, he's an incredible marketer too.
And he's incredible at doing customer support and so many things.
Little things, I don't know them personally, but just little things that I've picked up on.
This is one of those people, right?
So let's say you want to be good at this skill.
What's one quick thing that you can start by honing in on your skill?
So I would do what's called a 48-hour loop.
So pick one tiny problem you personally understand and then build the smallest version with AI.
It can be ugly.
It can be a script, a form, a simple web app, an automation, anything.
Then create 10 pieces of distribution for it before you even feel ready.
So that can be one demo video, three short clips, maybe three posts, two DMs, the people who have the problem, and then a landing page.
You're basically training yourself to stop separating the product from the market.
So what's powerful is that AI makes the building part faster.
We all know this.
So the marketing part, learning can start way earlier.
You don't need to spend now six months wondering if people want it.
You spend a weekend building enough to earn a real reaction.
And then the builder distributor is dangerous because now all of a sudden you can turn attention into product feedback and product feedback into better attention.
So it's this beautiful loop that you can end up...
be building.
And the only way to become an incredible builder distributor is you got to spend more time building and then spend more time launching and distributing and then building that loop.
I talk a lot about on this channel this concept of the ACP funnel and how it's the future of building businesses.
You build audience at the top then you convert that to community and then you build a product there.
And that's also a loop that the builder distributor is excellent at.
The last skill that I think is just so valuable in this era is IRL community builders.
So this one feels almost old school, especially because we talked about AI robotics and open source technology and local AI.
But that's kind of why I like it.
moves to agents and chats and tools and feeds, real rooms actually become more valuable.
People still want to meet other ambitious people.
They still want to meet people like them who are into the same things that they might be into.
And they also still want trust and they want energy and they want to be around others who teach them things or who are they just entertained by.
So AI makes content abundant.
It makes software abundant.
It makes advice abundant.
So where does scarcity move towards?
Well, scarcity moves towards belonging, trust, and context.
Who do you actually know?
Who would answer your text?
Who would help you hire?
Who would introduce you to a customer?
Who would tell you the honest version of what's happening in their market?
The IRL community builder knows how to create that.
They know how to pick the right room, set the right topic, invite the right mix of people, and create a ritual that people want to come back to.
A great community is actually more like a habit than an event.
Same time, same kind of people, same promise, better conversations each time.
The first rep, if I was trying to get good at IRL events, which, by the way, I should note, there's hundreds of millions.
billions of dollars up for guys for people who can create incredible events.
And I'm not just pulling numbers just randomly.
You can look at huge event companies that just absolutely crush it selling events.
If you even look at tech, look at Saster.
I think Jason Lemkin created an event all around SaaS.
And I think he's publicly shared some of his numbers.
They're massive.
If you look at South by Southwest, these are huge events.
There's just a lot of opportunity.
And I think in general, people don't want massive events anymore.
They actually want these kind of smaller, more bespoke events.
And that's where the opportunity lies.
Okay, so let's say you wanted to get good at being the IRL community builder person.
What's one little thing that you can...
do to learn the skill?
Well, why not host six, seven, eight people around one sharp question?
So you don't start with this massive event.
You start with a dinner or a walk or a hike, a breakfast.
And the question could be something like, what skill are you learning because of AI?
Let's say if you wanted to build a community around AI, it would be something like that.
Or what are you automating in your company right now?
Or what do you think everything in tech is missing?
And then you invite people who can actually answer it.
Then after the event, you send a short recap with the best quotes, inside jokes maybe, ideas, and one follow-up everyone should do.
The recap is important because it turns the room into a network.
So that's the whole goal with the whole IRL community builder.
How do you turn these rooms into a network?
Because that's what creates memory.
And it gives people a reason to forward it.
It makes the next invite easier.
So over time, the room becomes a media asset, a recruiting asset, a deal flow asset, and honestly, a life asset.
So I think this skill pairs beautifully with others.
The agent person who can build tools for the community.
The marketer can grow it.
The curator.
can turn the best conversations into content.
The builder distributor can launch products from it.
The robotics person can bring the weird demos.
And that's when it starts getting really interesting.
So there you have it.
Those are the six skills that I think matter most in the agentic era.
So TLDR, what are the six skills?
One, people who can set up agents properly, manage them, and run local models.
Two, marketers who know how to build distribution.
Robotic engineers who can build hardware, wire in AI, and source manufacturing.
Four, curators who are good at yapping and can do short-form video in their sleep.
Five, the builder distributor.
The one person who can both ship the product and get in front of people.
And six, the IRL community builder who's bringing people into these rooms and starting networks from an IRL.
perspective.
The bigger point of all this is that the future favors the person who can combine all these capabilities.
There's obviously too many tools to know all of them and the advantage goes to the people who know how the pieces fit together.
Can you make agents useful?
Can you get attention?
Can you build physical things?
Can you explain what matters?
Can you ship and distribute?
Can you bring together in real life?
That is that skill stack.
And this is the six skill stacks that, you know, pick one and, you know, you don't have to be amazing at all six, but pick one and get dangerous.
You know, pick two and you have some leverage.
But pick three and you become, you know, the kind of person that everyone wants on the team, in the room, or building the company.
We're in for a crazy next five, 10, 15 years about what's going to happen.
in the job market, in the economy.
No one really, really knows.
But the one thing we do know is that knowing these skills or skills in general, it's going to make you, it is your defense.
It is your shield.
I believe that.
So I wanted to make this episode because I think a lot of people know that they should be doing something, but they're not sure what they should be doing.
So I wanted to put this into one place that's really simple.
easy to understand, the six most important skills.
Share this with a friend who this might be helpful to.
I hope it has been helpful to you.
And I'll see you at the next one.
Thank you so much and have a creative day.