Recently, I noticed my son was coming home later and going to work earlier. He typically works a 9/80 schedule as a software engineer, but at times he might work extra hours on a deadline. His company tries hard to keep employees working a set schedule without overtime. Unless there is a need, after all, this is software. However, when they are on a deadline, management warns people, and they try to manage overtime to reasonable levels to avoid burning out employees.
I asked him if he was extra busy or if AI was encouraging extra hours. He told me this was a short-term project with a few more hours, but mostly the team was decompressing a bit after work. I completely understood that as I’ve spent my share of time with co-workers at theend ofday, sometimes sharing a drink or meal nearby, sometimes just chatting in the office or the parking lot.
There have been a number of studies and reports that AI is making people work more, not less. The time spent on a variety of tasks, especially those where we are reading or interacting with text, has grown. I suspect there is additional pressure from management as well to get more done since everyone has an AI assistant around. There is also the excitement of tackling new projects, which can lead people to spend more time at work. While I appreciate that AI can be exciting, and you might love it, don’t lose yourself in it at work. It’s still just a tool.
And, of course, there’s the token spend. Some managers are measuring people on the amount of work their AI assistants do, rather than by what gets done. I’ve certainly seen plenty of people using AI to perform busy work just to be seen as using AI tools.
At times, it seems people are using AI to process more information, which they then use AI to summarize. They post these summaries, which grow in number because the AI can produce more of them. Others use their AIs to read these summaries and produce their own summary of what they should be reading. It certainly seems like AI is producing more copies of information, summarized over and over, giving all of us more things to keep an eye on.
That seems silly. While I like AI, I fall into that group that uses it lightly for targeted tasks. I certainly try not to create more reports, summaries, or even emails to send to others, especially large groups of people. We have enough to review without AI creating even more tasks to deal with every week.
Steve Jones
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