# What comes next (/claude-and-chatgpt-2/architecture/what-comes-next) --- type: Document title: "What comes next" description: "Predictions, not announcements. What could be built on today's features, sorted into three evidence levels, and the one rule that does not change." status: stable order: 0.4915 ksor: owner: team:panaversity audience: [ public ] approval: by: process:panaversity at: 2026-11-09T20:42:36Z chapter: "F00A" part: Front expert_status: required concepts: [ "What comes next" ] last_verified: 2026-11-09 sources: - id: projects-redesigned title: "Projects redesigned: from folder to conversation (Anthropic, September 17, 2026)" resource: https://claude.com/blog/projects-redesigned - id: claude-projects title: "Let Claude coordinate ongoing work with Projects (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/claude-projects - id: cloud-scheduled-tasks title: "Automate work with scheduled tasks (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/routines - id: claude-tag-identity title: "How agent identity works, Claude Tag (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://claude.com/docs/claude-tag/concepts/agent-identity - id: self-hosted title: "Self-hosted environments (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/self-hosted-environments - id: self-hosted-identity title: "Verify session identity in self-hosted environments (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/self-hosted-environments-identity - id: cloud-environments title: "Configure cloud environments (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/cloud-environments - id: cross-session title: "Message your other Claude Code sessions (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/cross-session-messaging - id: run-agents-in-parallel title: "Run agents in parallel (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/agents - id: a2a-linux-foundation title: "Linux Foundation launches the Agent2Agent Protocol Project (Linux Foundation, June 23, 2025)" resource: https://linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-launches-the-agent2agent-protocol-project-to-enable-secure-intelligent-communication-between-ai-agents - id: managed-agents title: "Claude Managed Agents overview (Anthropic, verified 2026-11-09)" resource: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/overview generated: at: 2026-11-09T20:42:36Z by: process:panaversity trust_tier: unverified build_id: sha256:46fd53c5d7ab1c14f6347908d45c9fdaecda4d914439923ee878bdcecd57803e dirty: true ksor_version: 0.0.60 --- *Predictions built on what exists today, sorted by how strong the evidence is* ### Why this page is different Other pages describe what exists now. This page holds **predictions, not announcements**. No vendor has promised these features. They are our view of where today's tools lead. The agent now has a disposable computer of its own, run from a server. So a session can be timed, started, moved, sent notes, checked and paid for, like a server job. Most of what follows comes from that. > [!NOTE] > **Three evidence levels used on this page** > > - **Signaled:** a vendor's own pages point this way. > - **Assembling:** the pieces exist, but no vendor has said it will join them. > - **Speculative:** a reasonable direction with little direct evidence. > > Quoted facts are still **[Vendor-documented]**. Each prediction carries its own level. ### Signaled: the documents already point here **1. Projects for teams.** **[Signaled]** Today "a project belongs to one user."[^claude-projects] Anthropic's launch post says projects for "Team and Enterprise plans come after that."[^projects-redesigned] The guess is shared projects with roles. One person sets the brief. Others add work. A manager approves. **2. Workers that wake on business events.** **[Signaled]** Cloud scheduled tasks "run in the cloud on a schedule, on API calls, or on GitHub events."[^cloud-scheduled-tasks] The Tour records that ChatGPT's scheduled tasks can start on [Gmail, Slack, GitHub and plugin events](../tour/side-by-side.md). The guess is built-in triggers from many more business systems. A new invoice in Brightline's inbox could start a run. **3. Workers with their own identity.** **[Signaled]** In Slack channels, Claude Tag "acts with its own service accounts, rather than as a specific user."[^claude-tag-identity] A self-hosted session carries a signed token. It says whether a person or "your organization's service identity" created it.[^self-hosted-identity] The guess is a worker inside the company's identity system, with its own login, roles and access that can be cut off. ### Assembling: the pieces exist and need joining up **4. Approval and policy as a platform service.** **[Assembling]** Today an approval is a prompt inside one thread. A limit typed to a coordinator is "not enforced settings."[^claude-projects] The guess is one approval queue across all your workers. A second person signs anything over an amount. Each worker has a spending limit. The business record and its rules stay with the company. Brightline's payment connector still checks again. **5. Worker templates you can share and hire.** **[Assembling]** A setup, plugins, instructions and a schedule now describe a role.[^cloud-environments],[^claude-projects] The guess is packaged roles, such as an "accounts payable worker". They would be shared the way plugins are shared today. **6. Testing workers like software.** **[Assembling]** Setup snapshots give repeatable starting points. Anthropic "stores the session transcript."[^cloud-environments],[^self-hosted] The guess is replaying a run against a changed brief, and staging a worker before it goes live. Brightline could test a new brief on last Friday's invoices first. **7. Desks that work old software.** **[Assembling]** The Tour documents a [ChatGPT cloud browser](../tour/chatgpt.md). It also documents computer use in [Claude](../tour/claude-conversations.md) and ChatGPT. The guess is screen control on the cloud desk. A worker could then use old portals that have no API. ### Speculative: further out **8. Workers inside your own network and country.** **[Speculative]** Session content itself may come to stay inside the company or the country. For banks and public bodies, that may decide whether AI Workers can be used at all. Today's facts point part of the way. **[Vendor-documented]** Self-hosted runs cloud sessions on your own machines. But "session content goes to Anthropic in both cases."[^self-hosted] Claude Managed Agents lists "Sandboxes on infrastructure you control for compliance or data-residency requirements."[^managed-agents] **9. Workers that talk across companies.** **[Speculative]** Your own sessions can message each other now. A message "can't approve anything."[^cross-session] Add verified identity across companies, and a buyer's worker could agree a delivery date with a supplier's worker. **10. Paying for outcomes, not seats.** **[Speculative]** A project now reports "token use by thread and by model."[^claude-projects] Pricing per finished job, such as per reconciled invoice, becomes possible. **11. The phone as the manager's desk.** **[Speculative]** You can now steer project threads "from your phone."[^claude-projects] The human job may become a stream of choices: say yes, change course, or help a stuck worker. ### Putting it together: one larger prediction **12. Independent AI Workers in the cloud, measured as Digital FTEs, that talk to each other.** Its four parts stand on different evidence: - **Deployed in the cloud.** **[Vendor-documented]** Cloud threads "keep going after you close your laptop."[^claude-projects] Self-hosted runners run the same sessions on a company's machines.[^self-hosted] **[Speculative]** The worker will likely stay a series of short sessions. Its continuity lives in memory, files and the business record. - **Independent in doing the work, not in deciding what it may do.** **[Vendor-documented]** Today, workers start on events, retry and finish alone. Claude Tag acts under its own accounts.[^claude-tag-identity] **[Speculative]** For money and legal commitments, the rule that authority stays outside the worker will likely tighten. - **Measured as Digital FTEs.** **[Speculative]** FTE stands for full-time equivalent, a way to count work in units of one full-time person. This is our framing. A worker has a role, an identity, a trigger, a budget and an output you can check. But one worker can run many threads at once, or sit idle. So a Digital FTE is a unit of delivered work, not a headcount number. - **Able to talk to each other.** **[Vendor-documented]** Today, within your own sessions and agent teams.[^cross-session],[^run-agents-in-parallel] **[Assembling]** within one company, once team projects, worker identity and shared environments join up. **[Speculative]** across companies and vendors. Open standards are on the way. One is the Agent2Agent protocol, "an open protocol created by Google for secure agent-to-agent communication and collaboration."[^a2a-linux-foundation] The hard part is trust. > AI Workers will run in the cloud as persistent, identified workers, measured as Digital FTEs. They will act on their own schedules and events. They will coordinate through messages. Messages will carry information, not authority. Each worker's permissions, records and approvals will stay with the business that deploys it. The last sentence keeps the prediction safe. If messages could authorize actions, one worker could manipulate another. A supplier's worker could send Brightline a corrected invoice. Only Brightline's own approval could release the payment. ![What comes next, by evidence level. Three columns. Signaled: projects for teams, workers that wake on business events, and workers with their own identity. Assembling: approval and policy as a platform service, worker templates to share and hire, testing workers like software, and desks that work old software. Speculative: workers inside your own network and country, workers that talk across companies, paying for outcomes not seats, and the phone as the manager's desk. A band shows prediction 12 and its parts across the levels. A callout says: the sandbox limits reach, lasting state lives outside it, and the service that acts checks authority.](img/what-comes-next-by-evidence-level.png) ### What does not change Every prediction still depends on three lines: - The sandbox limits reach but grants no permission ([Security boundaries](security-boundaries.md)). - Lasting state lives outside the sandbox ([The sandbox and its state](the-sandbox-and-its-state.md)). - A person or a system you control decides what may happen ([From personal worker to business worker](from-personal-worker-to-business-worker.md)). **[Inferred]** The platforms will take over more of the plumbing: identity, rules, triggers and tests. The design work then moves up a level: writing the brief, choosing the environment, setting authority and owning the record. That is the Forward Deployed Engineer's job. > **Rule to remember:** Features change. The pattern does not. Check what is a signal and what is a guess. Keep authority in the service that acts. Next, after the appendices, see the first case study, [Case 1: Nisha's AI Team](../case-1-nishas-ai-team/overview.md). It shows these ideas at work in one real evening. [^projects-redesigned]: Projects redesigned: from folder to conversation, Anthropic, September 17, 2026. [^claude-projects]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Let Claude coordinate ongoing work with Projects, Anthropic. [^cloud-scheduled-tasks]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Scheduled tasks were in research preview. Automate work with scheduled tasks, Anthropic. [^claude-tag-identity]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Claude Tag was in public beta. How agent identity works, Claude Tag docs, Anthropic. [^self-hosted]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Self-hosted environments were in public beta on Team and Enterprise plans. Self-hosted environments, Anthropic. [^self-hosted-identity]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Verify session identity in self-hosted environments, Anthropic. [^cloud-environments]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Configure cloud environments, Anthropic. [^cross-session]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Message your other Claude Code sessions, Anthropic. [^run-agents-in-parallel]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Agent teams were experimental and off by default. Run agents in parallel, Anthropic. [^a2a-linux-foundation]: Linux Foundation launches the Agent2Agent Protocol Project to Enable Secure, Intelligent Communication Between AI Agents, Linux Foundation, June 23, 2025. [^managed-agents]: As verified on November 9, 2026. Claude Managed Agents overview, Anthropic.