It might help to think of AI as just another software tool that you have to get familiar with to do your job. Photo / 123rf
Even if you don’t need it yourself, learning about AI can help you separate the helpfulness from the hype.
Reader: I have a mid-level job at a Fortune 500 company and have been promoted as far as I can go. My approach to technology is to let others work out the bugs, then think about engaging some years later when there’s a stable product that has demonstrated its usefulness. As an example, I got my first iPhone nearly 10 years after it was introduced. Additionally, other than a LinkedIn account that I occasionally use to track down former employees, I don’t do any social media. I live a delightful and normal life, with friends, family, neighbours, hobbies, vacations, etc., which reinforces my belief that much of this technology is bushwah.
Fast-forward to 2025 and all the hype about AI. My boss thinks AI will solve every problem and is wildly enthusiastic about it. The company sends internal emails recruiting people to evaluate AI tools and figure out how they can be inserted into our processes. I’m obviously not a good candidate for these task forces. I think the company is investing resources in a tool that is unproven and wildly erratic.
However, I don’t want to jeopardise my otherwise stellar reputation by becoming the grumpy old poop. So far I’m lying low, saying “hmm” a lot and politely declining if asked.
I have started considering what other fields I could go into, or downshifting to a smaller firm that doesn’t have the resources for this stuff. I would appreciate your insight on how to navigate the next 10 years until retirement. Is there any way to thread this needle?
Karla: Views on artificial intelligence in the workplace seem to fall into two categories: enthusiastic evangelists determined to hitch their wagon to the AI train, and sceptics like you (and me) who are wary of the risks, not least of which is that AI could end up making human workers redundant.
That’s not just the stuff of science fiction. Kevin Cantera, a reader from Las Cruces, New Mexico, willingly embraced AI for work. But as it turns out, he was training his replacement.
Cantera spent 17 years working for a K-12 education-tech company using his skills as a writer, researcher and historian. “Then, [large language models] became a thing,” he told me via email. He and his colleagues were first encouraged to use ChatGPT and later Microsoft Copilot to streamline their research and content production.
AI “was an incredible tool for me as a writer. I considered the LLM as a collaborator. My productivity was off the charts,” Cantera said. He learned to develop effective prompts to help the AI generate accurate, relevant answers, and he made sure to review, edit and rewrite the results to ensure quality. Man and machine seemed to have a good partnership.
Then, this summer, despite reassurances from his boss that AI would not replace him, Cantera became one of a couple of dozen content creators laid off and replaced by AI.
“I am sure they try to vet what they get from AI, but I also know that they let go of a good number of [subject-matter experts],” Cantera wrote. “It is absolutely terrifying to think they could be relying on the model’s output without any [quality assurance] or true subject-matter expert review.”
Even without the “AI will take our jobs” spectre, there’s much to be wary of in the AI hype. Faster isn’t always better. Parroting and predicting linguistic patterns isn’t the same as creativity and innovation. Despite promises that AI will eliminate tedious, “low-value” tasks from our workload, many consumers and companies seem to be using it primarily as a cheap shortcut to avoid hiring professional actors, writers or artists – whose work, in some cases, was stolen to train the tools usurping them. There are concerns about hallucinations, faulty data models, and intentional misuse for purposes of deception. And that’s not even addressing the environmental impact of all the power- and water-hogging data centres needed to support this innovation.
And yet, it seems, resistance may be futile. The AI genie is out of the bottle and granting wishes. And at the rate it’s evolving, you won’t have 10 years to weigh the merits and get comfortable with it. Even if you move on to another workplace, odds are AI will show up there before long. Speaking as one grumpy old Luddite to another, it might be time to get a little curious about this technology just so you can separate helpfulness from hype.
It might help to think of AI as just another software tool that you have to get familiar with to do your job. Learn what it’s good for – and what it’s bad at – so you can recommend guidelines for ethical and beneficial use. Learn how to word your wishes to get accurate results. Become the “human in the loop” managing the virtual intern. You can test the bathwater without drinking it.
Focus on the little ways AI can accommodate and support you and your colleagues. Maybe it could handle small tasks in your workflow that you wish you could hand off to an assistant. Automated transcriptions and meeting notes could be a life-changer for a colleague with auditory processing issues.
I can’t guarantee that dabbling in AI will protect your job. But refusing to engage definitely won’t help. And if you decide it’s time to change jobs, having some extra AI knowledge and experience under your belt will make you a more attractive candidate, even if you never end up having to use it.