Business book reviews: Superagency

By Richard Stone, founder and MD of technical PR agency Stone Junction

Broadly speaking, I agree with them. But, and this is not a flaw of this book alone but rather a flaw of all business books based on a single, albeit good idea, it does rather labour the point.

The structure of the book is simple: Hoffman and Beato take us through a history of technology, from the printing press and the power loom to the internet and GPS. As they do so, they explain how each piece of technology was initially viewed as an existential threat to its industry, but each one turned out to be a tool that guided humanity into a brave new phase of being.

Hoffman and Beato write, “Every new technology we’ve invented — from language, to books, to the mobile phone — has defined, redefined, deepened, and expanded what it means to be human.”

The author’s core argument is that, if this were true of these other technologies, it is also true of artificial intelligence.

The flaw in this thesis is evident; asbestos, cluster bombs, thalidomide, coal – the list of technologies that seemed threatening, had negative effects and, crucially, could have been replaced by a better alternative is long. The fact that GPS is wonderfully useful doesn’t mean all technologies are inherently good.

A technology feeling threatening at the outset doesn’t mean it isn’t threatening because other technologies have turned out to be beneficial.

And that’s not the only flaw in Superagency’s thinking. The venerable US literary review Kirkus had this to say about Superagency, and broadly, I think they were right:

“They frequently make comparisons that are an oversimplification of a complex issue, such as when they write: “Regulation is one way we try to compel certainty, but no regulation can completely eliminate the risk of some unfortunate thing happening.”

“The authors compare the regulation of Large Language Models (LLMs) used in AI to laws against robbery and professional licensing for doctors and lawyers: “Laws that make robbery a crime aren’t a guarantee that you won’t ever get mugged — they’re simply a policy designed to reduce that possibility.”

“But these are vastly different domains with distinct risks and regulatory challenges. The authors’ writing suffers from logical fallacies — hyperbole, hasty generalizations, and false dichotomies.”

Nevertheless, I am excited and motivated by this book and its purpose is exactly that; to motivate people and make them excited about the future of AI at work and in life.

What to do with a problem like AI?
When faced with a book like Superagency, which is clearly marketing or management adjacent but not about marketing or management per se, the trick is to learn from the small points, the minutiae, the detail. Don’t feel too concerned if you don’t come out of it with a task list the length of your arm that you can use to improve your practice as a professional.

But, in this case, the core task the book invites you to complete is simple; find out how you and your business can develop ‘superagency’. Find out how you can enhance your ability to achieve your goals through the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI), viewing it as a force that amplifies your capacity to act with greater precision, creativity, and impact.

For me, as an owner of a PR agency, that means three things. First, and most simply, answering the question, ‘how can I use AI to make myself personally more effective?’

Second, how can I implement AI across the agency in ways that benefit clients, by streamlining administrative or repetitive tasks and making things quicker, more effective and cheaper. Well, we’ve been on that road definitively since 2023 and have been using AI applications in our work since at least 2017.

I believe that clients want things to be more efficient, on brief and less expensive and I believe the PR industry can deliver that. At the very least, we can make what we do as businesses more effective and no more expensive.

To this end, Stone Junction will be branding and naming the AI tools we’ve developed over the last several years and more clearly explaining to clients the benefits they deliver. And those benefits are clear; more insight through research and analysis, better coverage through customer profiling and use of data and faster work, because the grunt jobs can be done by AI.

Third, how can I do this and guarantee that journalists still trust the content we provide and are confident that it isn’t written by an AI? Or, even worse, that we aren’t presenting them with false, AI generated, spokespeople — as some agencies have been found guilty of already?

Journalists want the copy we provided to be largely written by a human being. There’s no question of that.

To help fulfil this need, Stone Junction will soon be launching its AI charter; a set of promises about the way we will use AI in our work to make certain that what we produce meets the needs of the media in 2025, without undermining those needs with bad generative content.

Would any of that have happened if I hadn’t read Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future? Yes, without question, AI has been a key part of Stone Junction’s practice for several years now, as it has for most people in our industry. But I don’t think I would have addressed the subject with the same degree of enthusiasm that I feel after a healthy dose of Hoffman and Beato. Even if they do rather labour their point.

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