This is because the vast majority of white collar activity in a large corporation produces no direct economic value.
Making it easier/better just means more/higher quality “worthless” work is performed. The incentives in the not-directly -productive parts of organizations are to keep busy and maintain a stream of signals of productivity. For this , AI just raises the bar. The 25% of the work that -is- important to producing economic value just gets reduced to 15%.
The workforce in large orgs that is most AI adjacent is already idling along in terms of production of direct economic value. Making them 10x more productive in nonproductive work will not impact critical metrics in a short timeframe.
It’s worth noting that these “not directly productive” activities actually can (and often do) produce value, eventually. Things like brand identity, culture, and meta-innovation, vision (search-space) are intangibles that present as cost centers but can prove invaluable in longer timescales if done right.
There are a lot of people who sit with their laptop open while streaming something, sleeping or messing with their phone while periodically waking up to join a new meeting or fiddle with something to make it look like they are active.
These are the people "shocked" when they are displaced.
Making it easier/better just means more/higher quality “worthless” work is performed. The incentives in the not-directly -productive parts of organizations are to keep busy and maintain a stream of signals of productivity. For this , AI just raises the bar. The 25% of the work that -is- important to producing economic value just gets reduced to 15%.
The workforce in large orgs that is most AI adjacent is already idling along in terms of production of direct economic value. Making them 10x more productive in nonproductive work will not impact critical metrics in a short timeframe.
It’s worth noting that these “not directly productive” activities actually can (and often do) produce value, eventually. Things like brand identity, culture, and meta-innovation, vision (search-space) are intangibles that present as cost centers but can prove invaluable in longer timescales if done right.