AI & I The AI Sandwich: Where Humans Excel in an AI World
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Apr 22, 2026 
Kieran Klaassen, Cora GM and creator of the compound engineering method, maps out an AI sandwich where people set the frame and polish the result. He explores when to stay involved and when to step back. The conversation touches on why judgment and taste still matter, what a real AGI bar looks like, and how his classical composer background shapes ideas about craft, performance, and joy at work.
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Compound Engineering Turns Agent Mistakes Into Memory
- Compound engineering splits AI work into plan, work, review, and compound, then feeds mistakes and learnings back into the repo.
- Kieran Klaassen says the work phase is basically solved if the plan is strong; the real leverage is storing reusable lessons agents can see next time.
Why Humans Belong At The Ends Of AI Work
- Humans add the most value at the start and finish of AI workflows, while agents handle the middle efficiently.
- Kieran Klaassen and Dan Shipper argue humans should frame the problem, then return to judge feel, polish, and whether the result is actually theirs.
Frame Switching Keeps Humans In The Loop
- Agents can solve tasks inside a frame, but humans still outperform them at changing the frame itself.
- Dan Shipper uses the knee-pain example: Advil, stretching an IT band, or changing running surfaces all address the same issue from different problem levels.