---
id: "quote-pdfs-are-outputs"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ Data: Make it plain text."]
tags: ["data-management", "markdown"]
related: ["concept-human-formatted-data"]
speaker: "Harang Ju"
speakers: ["Harang Ju"]
quote: "PDFs and formatted documents become outputs for humans, not sources of truth for agents."
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-ext-17-workplace-set-up-for-agents"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/is-your-workplace-set-up-for-ai-agents"
sourceTitle: "Is Your Workplace Set Up for AI Agents?"
---
# PDFs are Outputs, Not Sources

A rule of thumb for data storage in the agent era; see [[concept-human-formatted-data]] and [[action-convert-to-markdown]].

> PDFs and formatted documents become outputs for humans, not sources of truth for agents.

— [[entity-harang-ju|Harang Ju]]