He has to have imagination and will. He has to be an agent, not an automaton with a fixed set of responses. At present, such decisions are made by human beings. This would not affect the point. The same decisions that have to be made now will still have to be made in the future, and these decisions will still require a mind with a causal model of the world.
Human action requires human syntax.
Automated systems exist within a larger context which is not automated. Automated systems by themselves are, by definition, not purposeful. They have to be programmed. Any system, nano or macro, that performs purposeful tasks must contain agents. The interface between agents and automated systems will always be there.