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| url | https://medium.com/@thirugnanamk/taste-and-agency-the-human-edge-in-the-ai-era-44d49c3afd80 |
| author | Thirugnanam Kannayiram |
| published | 2026-01-31 |
| description | Taste and Agency: The Human Edge in the AI Era When execution is free, judgment becomes the real competitive advantage AI can now write code, design products, and generate content faster than any … |
Defining Taste and Agency in the Modern AI Context
Taste, often dismissed as subjective preference, is emerging as a form of intelligence. It’s the cultivated instinct that helps us select what matters from an overwhelming set of possibilities. In an era of generative abundance, taste becomes the curator’s edge — deciding not just what ==can be made, but what should be made.==
Agency, on the other hand, is our capacity for autonomous action — the willingness to choose, to intervene, and to steer outcomes rather than drift with defaults. Think of AI like a self-driving car: it can handle the driving, but humans still decide where to go.
In software engineering, for example, AI can generate endless implementations of a feature. Taste selects the elegant, maintainable approach. Agency ensures that choice is integrated thoughtfully into the broader system rather than accepted blindly.