The Promises and
Perils of AI at Work
Technology promises to make our lives easier, more productive, and more fulfilling. In fields like medicine, energy, and transportation, that promise is largely being realised. But in office environments, it’s a different story. Too many knowledge workers feel bombarded by emails, trapped in endless days of back-to-back meetings, and tethered to company-issued devices that demand their attention 24/7.
Enter artificial intelligence (AI), trumpeted by tech giants as the next big thing. From an employee perspective, though, AI looks more like a threat than an opportunity. There’s a fear that as AI learns to mimic human cognition and action, it will eventually replace human workers altogether. Economists project hundreds of millions of jobs being displaced by AI, with older workers bearing the brunt of the disruption.
The companies peddling AI claim it will generate new kinds of jobs, but is that just wishful thinking? After all, the end goal of AI is to operate autonomously without human oversight. This isn’t the ‘new’ Industrial Revolution all over again, it’s the Machine Revolution. Rather than needing millions of people to tend the new machines, the goal of the machines of the AI era is to ultimately tend themselves.
And yet, I’m struck by the human capacity to shape technology in ways its creators never envisioned. The English Premier League is currently grappling with how to properly implement video assistant referees (VARs) to improve game officiating. The problem isn’t with the VAR technology itself, but with how it’s being used. The humans designing the policies, enforcing the rules, and interpreting the laws of the game are the real bottleneck. And they are creating a miserable experience for the very people paying to enjoy the spectacle.
We can’t treat AI (or technology more broadly) as a panacea to be layered indiscriminately on top of dysfunctional systems and cultures. Adding AI to toxic workplaces that already suffer from collaboration deficits is only going to make things worse.
Look at how we’ve struggled with something as simple as smartphones. A powerful tool for connectivity and information access has become a soul-crushing vortex of distraction and addiction for far too many of us. If we can’t master the smart use of smartphones, how can we expect to wield more powerful technologies responsibly?
The path forward requires courage, discipline and a human-centric vision. We need to become students of our tools instead of passive consumers, understanding the unique value propositions of different technologies and how to incorporate them into healthier work practices. Boundaries and etiquette will be critical — there are times for AI-enabled deep work, and times to prioritise human connection and analog collaboration.
Above all, organisations need to get intentional about shaping cultures that bring out the best in people and technology. The companies that flourish won’t be the ones that let AI run rampant, automating every knowledge worker out of existence. They’ll be the ones that deploy AI in service of more cohesive, creative, productive human ways of working.
We stand on the precipice of an AI-powered future of work. Whether it liberates us or entraps us largely depends on our ability to be the human architects and governors of these mighty technologies. History makes it clear that leaving innovation ungoverned leads to calamity; this century’s challenge is to build new models of working and living where humans and machines coexist in fruitful harmony.
