In an era when generative AI can draft query letters and scan market trends in seconds, Australian literary agents are confronting a question that cuts to the heart of their profession: what does human advocacy mean when machines can approximate its surface forms? The answer emerging from the industry is not a defense of the old mystique, but something more durable — a deliberate turn toward transparency, as agents articulate clearly what they will and will not entrust to algorithms. It is a moment that reminds us that trust, unlike prose, cannot be generated on demand.