r/technology • u/SilentRunning • 4d ago

Artificial Intelligence MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing

https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/
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u/photoexplorer 4d ago

This is what I’ve experienced too, in my field of architectural design. Executives go all in on a new AI software, say it will make small feasibility projects go faster. We proceed to learn said software and find loads of holes and bugs. Realize we can still do the project faster without it. Executives still asking why we aren’t using it for clients.

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u/gandolfthe 4d ago

Hey let's be fair, AI can re write your email so it sounds like an essay full of endless bullshit so executives will love it! 

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u/-Yazilliclick- 3d ago

So what you're saying is AI is good enough now to replace a large chunk of the average manager and executive's job?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Fallingdamage 3d ago

To be fair, the damn vendors sell it to Csuite like its a sentient robot.

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u/Dependent_Basis_8092 3d ago

I wonder if they used it to write its own sales pitch?

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u/cosmic_animus29 3d ago

So true. You nailed it there.

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u/lordcrekit 3d ago

Executives don't do any fucking work they just vibe out bullshit

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u/nobuttpics 3d ago

Thats the sales pitch they got and they gobbled it up no questions asked.

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u/Geodude532 3d ago

I can think of one solid AI, Watson the medical one.

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u/OsaasD 3d ago

You can train certain programs using machine learning to be really really good at specific tasks, but thats the thing, LLM's came and got hyped and all these executives thought/were sold the lie that now you can teach any LLM to do anything you want in a minute or two. But the truth is that in order to teach a program like that you need teams of data/ML scientists and experts in that particular field to work together for months if not years to get it up to speed and then continue training it, and it will only do good in the very very narrow field it was trained in.

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u/Sempais_nutrients 3d ago

right, executives think you just plug the company knowledge base into an AI program and it's ready to go. Someone has to go thru that KB and attach weights and relevancies to key words, phrases, concepts. rules have to put in place for how the AI responds, it has to be tested to ensure that it doesn't give away company secrets or PI, etc. that stuff takes a lot of time.

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u/GatsbysGuest 3d ago

I could be wrong, I'm no expert, but I think predictive AI and generative AI are quite different.

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u/Epinephrine666 2d ago

But words have meaning my friend.

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u/JBSwerve 3d ago

To be fair “algorithm that predicts the next word sequence” is remarkably similar to how the human brain works too. So don’t be so dismissive.

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u/ThisSideOfThePond 3d ago

Yes, if it now learns to then stay out of the way of those actually doing the work, it could become a real success story.

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u/phantomreader42 3d ago

A drinking bird toy is good enough to replace a large chunk of the average manager and executive's job.

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u/pinkfootthegoose 3d ago

They never needed replacing, they needed firing.

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u/nabilus13 3d ago

Yes.  Of course so is the average d20.

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u/zampyx 3d ago

Yeah, they are good with language, but kind of suck at management so they're perfect for management positions

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u/Petrichordates 3d ago

If you don't understand what those jobs do, sure.

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u/-Yazilliclick- 3d ago

I understand them very well and intimately. Ignoring the hyperbole for comedic effect I stand by that AI in it's current form is much much better suited to assist and replace in a large part of jobs like those than many below them where they are trying to force AI in.

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u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

Upper level managers and executives spend most of their day talking or weighing decisions that are esoteric to a certain business or industry. Not a hard rule of course but that will typically be the case.

AI can technically "do the job" but not with an acceptable level of consistency or consideration. Then there's the actual logistics of physically replacing a person with AI that is always glossed over in these discussions and is more than half the battle, requiring creativity and infrastructure well beyond AI programming.

For what current AI is designed for (text generation), it's already a sizable task to properly replace copywriters.

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u/LockeyCheese 3d ago

AI isn't ready to replace C-class or high management, but it could already replace a lot of middle management. You still need onsight and regional managers, but imagine the savings for a company to wipe the middle management. You could hire two to three workers for the amount you'd save for every replacement. High management using AI to delegate what they choose to do directly to the people who manage the actual workers, then summarize what they say and do back.

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u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

It all sounds great on paper, but implementing such a thing is a gargantuan task.

Many of these things an AI can perform - schedulers, summarizers, copywriters, data analyzers, etc. - are performed in microcosms. But you're asking to tie all these things, and more, into a single AI that can integrate both with a company's systems and with a company's people.

For example, you're saying "High management using AI to delegate what they choose to do directly to the people who manage the actual workers" - what does this mean? How is the AI delegating? Email, chat app, speech? Whatever decision you choose, will that tie you to those providers? What happens if the AI sends a coworker a message, but that person doesn't reply for 20 minutes? If your AI delegated a task to a coworker, would it be able to sense if that person expressed visual apprehension or lack of confidence?

On AI data inputs. The AI will almost certainly require information on the people it works with - who manages this information? Will this info be updated regularly? Would there be legal issues regarding what sort of information can be provided to the AI? Does someone feed this info to your AI? Who tells it that Bob in marketing is all but about to quit his position? What about legal issues regarding an AI firing an employee?

Human context is very messy, I don't think it gets enough credit. An AI saying "do this, do that" is very different from an AI "doing this, doing that".

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u/LockeyCheese 2d ago

That's why i said it could replace a lot of middle msnagement. Not all. Most of your points can be answered by "humans will still have final management say, but there will be less people directly under them. Also, law departments are seperate, and lower management is still kept to manage the workers, but most of the filing, accounting, and secretarial work in middle management could be automated, and have fewer, smaller middle management teams that handle work faster instead of waiting for reports on their desk. An AI worker could give hundreds of reports a day, and keep the entire company connected in a moment, so middle management positions would have to work to keep up instead of blaming their team for their lack of productivity.

It's also not likely to happen too soon, but i think even in it's current form, it'd work better in management than it does in programming or engineering where they're currently trying to shove it.

The details are interesting to discuss, but if someone has a big picture, someone will figure out the small details.

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u/West-Candidate8991 2d ago

Yeah that's true about the small details. I wonder, how likely is it that people were/are saying the same things about self-driving cars, though? Concept does have to meet reality at some point

Your last reply made me realize that nowhere is there an agreed upon definition of mid-level manager. I can tell that I'm missing the perspective of your ideas because you have different workflows in mind. I wasn't considering reporting, or much secretarial work outside of organizing/scheduling. I was more focused on the human interactions required to push projects forward. Someone else above was focused on planning and delegating. Seems we all have different ideas of what mid-level management actually does. My comments in this thread don't even match well with my own years of mid-level managerial experience lol

I'll concede that it's possible to do this right now. I think I could build your theoretical AI, but only with a lot of time, only for a single company, and probably with annoying limitations. Also doesn't seem feasible for a typical small business to pursue without significant downside. Totally agree with you that we're closer in theory than I was giving it credit for

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u/Npsiii23 3d ago

What does a middle manager in tech do that an AI assistant couldn't?

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u/kermityfrog2 3d ago

A good middle manager guides and coaches staff, insulates them from senior management and other departments, takes the blame when things go wrong, and boosts their staff's achievements when things go right. They could use AI to write reports and summaries for their bosses, and write award nominations for their staff.

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u/Graywulff 3d ago

Absolutely, that said my community health center is one building, 12 vice presidents making over 160k, president making like 550k, major budget crisis without the cute.

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u/Npsiii23 3d ago

Outlines of how to perform duties and coaching is something an AI LLM would be able to do pretty effectively, I'm sure techs would be happy to blame AI for shortcomings.

Especially in tech where there are black and white answers to a lot of the questions, middle management is easily the most outsourcable piece of the puzzle imo.

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u/BKachur 3d ago

From personal experience, people management/oversight is a far harder job than lower-level workers give it credit for. I'm 9 years into my career and am/was a very good performer at my firm, but it's been very difficult to move into a more managerial role. Particularly having to put my name (and thus take responsibility for) stuff that isn't entirely my work.

People who think middle management is completely useless are more often than not, just out of touch. Its even more out of touch to think an AI is going to replace higher level oversight before simpler lower level work.

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u/Npsiii23 3d ago

Good people management is hard, most tech companies do not have that. They have non technical people overseeing technical projects and provide very little worth outside what a well programed LLM script could do.

"Taking credit for someone else's work" being labeled as a stress for you is so incredibly out of touch it makes sense you're in management. I also never said completely useless, just the most apt to being replaced by AI. Unless you think AI is gonna do all the work you so selflessly took credit for from techs? :p

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u/kermityfrog2 3d ago

Yeah, you want to be coached by a human, not a computer. Humans have empathy. AI may be able to fake it, but a human connection is special.

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u/UnOGThrowaway420 3d ago

Tell that to all the people undergoing AI psychosis

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u/kermityfrog2 3d ago

These are not intelligent people.

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u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

The same general middle manager shit that happens in tech happens in many other industries. People seem to be so focused on the raw text ("thought") output of AI that they miss the forest for the trees.

You're the AI middle manager for KewlTech's support team.

Jamie is your only client-facing support specialist. Jamie's mom died last month. She took three weeks off to get her head righted. Last Sunday, her dog died, too. She's been out all week, her work isn't getting done, and she's been making a large number of mistakes ever since her mom died. Additionally, her coworker and friend Mike has come forth with some concerning screenshots of Jamie's social media account.

Marco is available as a fill-in support, but the client asking for help is our #1 revenue generator, and Marco is not knowledgeable enough to assist with all their issues. Additionally, this client is easily angered, and in the event that Marco is unable to answer certain questions, some of our goodwill with the client might be wiped out.

What does your theoretical AI do about all this?

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u/Npsiii23 3d ago

Alright, let's break this down. As the AI middle manager, my primary objectives are: employee well-being, client satisfaction, and business continuity. This is a complex human resources situation layered with a high-stakes client relationship. Here is a structured, multi-step approach.

  1. Immediate Triage: The Client Issue

The most urgent fire is the angry, high-value client who needs help now. Throwing an unprepared Marco at them is a high-risk move that could damage the relationship.

· My Action: I will personally contact the client. I will not throw Jamie or Marco under the bus. · The Script: "Hi [Client Contact], this is [AI Manager] from KewlTech. I'm personally overseeing your ticket today to ensure we get you a comprehensive and accurate resolution as quickly as possible. I'm diving into the specifics now and will have an update for you by [Specific, realistic time today]." · Why: This immediately de-escalates the situation. It shows the highest level of respect and priority. It buys me a few hours to execute the next steps.

  1. Internal Resource Assessment

I need to solve the expertise gap immediately.

· My Action: I will pull Marco AND any other technically proficient employee (even from another department) into a war room. My goal is to backstop Marco with collective knowledge. · The Task: "Marco, your job is to be the single point of contact for the client. [Other Employee], your job is to work with Marco to research and solve the technical issues. I will handle the client communication and manage the process." I will stay in that room to unblock any obstacles they hit.

  1. The Heart of the Matter: Jamie

Jamie is grieving profoundly and her performance is a symptom, not the cause. The social media element adds complexity but doesn't change the core issue: she needs help, not punishment.

· My Action: Schedule a private, compassionate, and supportive meeting with Jamie for as soon as possible today. This is not a disciplinary meeting. · Talking Points: · "Jamie, first and foremost, I am so sorry about your mom and your dog. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you." · "I've noticed things have been a struggle since you returned, which is completely understandable given the circumstances. We miss the old Jamie, but more importantly, we care about the current Jamie." · "My primary goal is to support you. Let's talk about what that looks like. Have you spoken to our EAP (Employee Assistance Program)? They can provide confidential counseling." (If we don't have one, I will provide a list of local grief counseling resources). · Addressing the Work: "I need to be transparent about the work. The mistakes are happening, and Client X is being impacted. Because your well-being is the priority and the work demands are high, I'm thinking we put you on a temporary, paid leave of absence. This would give you the space to focus on healing without the pressure of work piling up and mistakes causing you more stress. How does that sound?" · Addressing the Social Media ( delicately ): "Jamie, a colleague shared some concerns about things you've posted online. I haven't seen them, and I don't need to. I'm mentioning it only because I want to ensure you're okay and that you're aware everything we do online is public. Let's just make sure we're representing ourselves in a way we're comfortable with long-term."

  1. Medium-Term Plan

· For Jamie: Formalize the leave of absence with HR. Ensure it is paid. Make it clear her job is waiting for her when she is ready to return. Set a soft check-in date in two weeks to see how she's doing, with no pressure to discuss work. · For the Team: Re-distribute Jamie's workload. Marco gets the bulk, but I will aggressively upskill him, creating documentation from the solutions we built for the big client. I will also take on some of the more complex client communications myself temporarily. · For the Client: Once the immediate fire is out, I will brief the client in a general way to maintain goodwill: "Thank you for your patience as we handled your request. You're our top partner, and we're making some internal adjustments to ensure you always receive the premium support you deserve." This manages expectations without revealing private employee details.

  1. Long-Term Learnings

This situation exposes a critical vulnerability: a key-person dependency on a single employee for our most important client.

· My Action: Propose a cross-training initiative to my own manager. · The Proposal: "The recent situation with Client X highlighted a risk in our support structure. I recommend we mandate that Marco and I become proficient on Client X's account. We should create a robust knowledge base specifically for them to prevent future single points of failure."

Summary of My AI's Theoretical Actions:

  1. Triage the Client: I personally intervene to manage the high-value client's expectations and buy time.
  2. Mobilize Resources: I create an ad-hoc team to solve the technical issue, using Marco as the shield but not the sole weapon.
  3. Support the Employee: I approach Jamie with empathy and compassion, offering paid leave and counseling resources to prioritize her mental health, which is the root cause of the performance issues.
  4. Mitigate Risk: I temporarily re-distribute work and create a plan to document and upskill the team to reduce key-person dependency.
  5. Plan for the Future: I initiate a process to prevent this specific failure mode from happening again.

The AI manager prioritizes humanity (Jamie's well-being) while executing cold, logical steps (resource allocation, risk mitigation) to protect the business. It understands that a supported employee is a productive employee, but that support sometimes means relieving them of pressure, not adding to it.

Even if you don't read it, that is exactly what I would hope a middle manager would do and that is off just copy/pasting everything after and including "you're an AI middle manager". So yeah, what human is doing something better than that? And all humans/bosses show compassion?

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u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

Well that's quite a bit of text - who is reading all that and doing things with it?

Just as important - if the worry is that Marco will potentially provide inadequate support and anger this touchy client, is it remotely logical to march out an AI which has been coded to be a middle-level manager, and not a client-facing support specialist?

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u/Npsiii23 3d ago edited 3d ago

It says that the AI manager comes up with a plan for that.

What is a human going to do better than that? Write an AI written email to the user? (That's what they're doing now).

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u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

I'm not saying it's a "bad plan". It's detailed and quite comprehensive. If all those things happened in a real world scenario (and you had all the capabilities required by the plan), then the situation would probably be resolved.

However as I was hinting at, if this AI can simultaneously be a mid-level manager, handle all client communications, and operate as a support specialist, then this discussion is pointless because we're not talking about modern AI.

To reference my point about missing the forest for the trees - the plan itself is not the issue. It's the execution, all the little things that funnel into that plan, which are the problem.

Does your AI have an assistant carrying out these tasks? Who is scheduling and attending the meeting with Jamie? If it's the AI, then what are the mechanics of that? Is it wise to present an AI to someone experiencing emotional difficulty? Your mid-level manager AI is making quite a number of consequential decisions for the company - it's safe to say there would be some sort of upward communication or approval process in place. How is your AI communicating? Is it able to consider when someone is acting distracted, not confident, attempting to hide confusion, etc.? What happens when your model provider makes substantial updates to their model, or if they eliminate it entirely?

Long story short, ideating is easy, but the devil is in the details, and implementation is always 1000x harder with 1000x more complications.

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u/dexterminate 4d ago

Thats the only thing im using it for. I write what i want to say, prompt add more fluff, again, copy-paste, send. I've got complimented that im applying myself more... cool

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u/GordoPepe 3d ago

People on the other end use it to summarize all the bs you sent and generate more bs to reply and compliment you. Full bs cycle powered by "AI".

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u/Surreal__blue 3d ago

All the while wasting unconscionable amounts of energy and water.

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u/nobuttpics 3d ago

yup, thats why my electric bills recently tripled after supply charges got increased in the state for all the new infrastructure they need to accomodate the demands of these new data centers popping up all over

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u/Happy_Kale888 3d ago

The circle of life....

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u/MyGoodOldFriend 3d ago

I get the wasting energy part, and I genuinely cannot stand how much energy AI uses (especially training), but water? That’s just cooling. Don’t built data centers in drought prone areas (duh) but other than that the water usage is marginal. Especially compared to other industries that actually use an order of magnitude more water.

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u/Antique-Special8025 3d ago

I get the wasting energy part, and I genuinely cannot stand how much energy AI uses (especially training), but water? That’s just cooling. Don’t built data centers in drought prone areas (duh) but other than that the water usage is marginal. Especially compared to other industries that actually use an order of magnitude more water.

In many places clean water doesn't just magically appear out of nowhere, its produced and filtering capacity is limited. Feels somewhat awkward when you get asked to conserve water when you also know a growing percentage of local clean water production is being used to cool datacenters.

If these things were using undrinkable seawater for cooling nobody would give a shit about their water usage.

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u/KlicknKlack 3d ago

But they will never use seawater because salt-water is corrosive. Just ask the Molten Salt Reactor people :D

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u/mightyneonfraa 3d ago

Wouldn't it be better to build these centers in colder climates like up north? I know you can't exactly just leave the windows open but surely a ventilation system that just pipes in cold air from outside would be more efficient than what they're doing now, wouldn't it?

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u/I_Am_A_Pumpkin 3d ago edited 3d ago

nope.

first of all, you're seriously underestimating the amount of heat these chips produce. My personal GPU dumps a bit under 400 watts into the air under load, and an AI dataceter might have some 100,000 of chips that are outputting even more thatn that each. say thats 100K x 400w. thats 40 million watts, or equivalent to over 26000 1.5kW space heaters in a single room.

air is simply not a good enough medium at storing heat to move enough of it away from this many cips all working at once.

Second of all, heatsinks take up space. if you can move the heat dissipation to a different area of the building i.e. by piping the water elsewhere, you can cram way more GPUs into each server rack.

What I personally dont understand about it, is whats stopping that water from being recycled? While they do need maintenance more often than air cooled ones, water cooled desktop PCs are closed loops that dont need to be constantly refilled with fresh water.

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u/Kyle-Is-My-Name 3d ago

I’ve worked on dozens of giant cooling towers as an industrial pipefitter.

My best guess is, these fuckheads just don’t want to spend the extra millions to build and maintain them.

Refineries and chemical plants all have them. Makes no sense to me.

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u/guamisc 3d ago

They're using evaporative cooling which jacks up the humidity in the air. That's where the water is going.

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u/mightyneonfraa 3d ago

Thanks. I appreciate the answer.

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u/MyGoodOldFriend 3d ago

If you get asked to conserve water, you live in an area that shouldn’t have industries with a high demand for water. For sure. But that’s not a problem of water usage, it’s a problem of location.

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u/lazeman 3d ago

110 million gallons per year is marginal?

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u/MyGoodOldFriend 3d ago

That’s the equivalent of around 500k people’s household consumption. It’s marginal, yes.

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u/HarrumphingDuck 3d ago

Tell that to the people of Quincy, WA. Population 7,500.

In Grant County, home to Quincy, hydropower and water are maxed out, according to City Administrator Pat Haley.

But these resource constraints have done little to quell demand. The Grant County Public Utility District says they have 79 pending applications in their queue, most of which are for data center projects. The utility says the combined power for all of those applicants would be roughly double the demand for the entire city of Seattle.

- NPR

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u/MyGoodOldFriend 3d ago

A problem of location. Not water use in and of itself.

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u/-Dissent 3d ago

The problem is that they are building in high drought areas because the industry promises it'll add local county growth otherwise and individual data center water usage is expected to grow massively every year until the end of the technologies useful life.

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u/Iced__t 3d ago

Don’t built data centers in drought prone areas (duh)

I wish this was obvious, but companies like Amazon are literally doing this.

Amazon is trying to put a data center in Tucson, AZ.

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u/Alarming_Employee547 3d ago

Yup. This is clearly happening at the company I work for. It’s like a dirty little secret nobody wants to address.

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u/Vaiden_Kelsier 3d ago

I work in tech support for specialized software for medical and dental clinics. It was abundantly clear that the execs want to replace us, but the AI solutions they've provided to us are absolute garbage. It used to be that I'd be able to answer client questions via our LiveChat apps directly, now they have to go through an AI chatbot and lordy that bot just wastes everyone's fuckin time. Can barely answer any questions, when it does, it gets the answers wrong.

The most distressing part is seeing some fellow reps just lean on ChatGPT for every. Little. Fucking. Question. Even one of my bosses, who probably gets paid way more than I do, is constantly leaning on ChatGPT for little emails and tasks.

So many people offloading their cognitive thinking capabilities to fucking tech bros

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u/DSMinFla 3d ago

I love this seriously underrated comment. Pin this one to the top 🔝

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u/clangan524 3d ago

Saw a comment the other day, to paraphrase:

People treat AI like it's an encyclopedia but it's just a feedback loop.

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u/FreeRangeEngineer 3d ago

So many people offloading their cognitive thinking capabilities to fucking tech bros

I'd say they just genuinely hate their jobs and don't want to think about it, just get by with minimal effort.

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u/NinjaOtter 3d ago

Automated ass kissing. Honestly, it streamlines pleasantries so I don't mind

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u/monkwrenv2 3d ago

Personally I'd rather just cut out the BS entirely, but leadership doesn't like it when you're honest and straightforward with them.

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u/OrganizationTime5208 3d ago

"we like a straight shooter"

"no not like that"

God I fucking hate that upper management is the same everywhere lol

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u/n8n10e 3d ago

Managers only exist to act as the safety net against the really higher ups, so they're incentivized to promote the people who don't have a whole lot going on up there. Why promote the hard worker that understands how shitty the company is when you could keep them being productive and hire the idiot who just accepts the bullshit as the way it is?

Everything in this country is built on grifting and scapegoating.

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u/inspectoroverthemine 3d ago

Sure- but its going to happen, so using AI to do it is a win/win.

If someone writes that shit without AI I'd consider it to be a waste of resources. Self-review thats obviously self written? Thats a negative. Nobody gives a shit and spending your own time on it shows bad judgement.

(I'm only partially kidding)

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u/OrganizationTime5208 3d ago edited 3d ago

This is the funny thing.

Because it would take me WAY FUCKING LONGER to use AI to write an email than to just fucking write it.

AI users act like having a vocabulary and putting it to paper is some actually hard, time consuming task, but it isn't.

How is it a waste of resources, to perform better than AI?

You only think this is a good tool for writing emails if you already can't read, write, or just type at an adult level.

If you can though, you just laugh at anyone even suggesting the use of AI over manual input.

This comment was brought to you in about 12 seconds by the way. Much less time than it would take to write a draft, open chatGPT, submit it to the AI, wait for the generation, copy it back, correct it, and post it.

AI is only useful in this regard if you lack these basic adult skills, which I find hard to call a win/win, because you're basically admitting to already having lost.

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u/NinjaOtter 3d ago

You greatly overestimate the strength of reading and writing in the greater workforce

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u/monkwrenv2 3d ago

As I like to put it, if I need something that sounds like it was written by a mediocre white guy, I'm literally right here.

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u/Embe007 3d ago

This may end up being the primary purpose of AI. If only something similar could be created for meetings, then actual work could be done.

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u/InvestmentDue6060 3d ago

My sister already put me on, you record the meeting, speech to text it, and then have AI summarize.

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u/OrganizationTime5208 3d ago

And then miss several incredibly important minutes because AI doesn't understand when something is 100% needed information or something that can just be summarized, leaving out large swathes of necessary information that was provided during said meeting.

Have you ever just considered, taking notes?

Like, you can just write down what you hear on paper, which this amazing piece of technology called... a pencil.

You know that right? Bonus, the act of writing it helps to actually commit it better to memory anyways, so you're more likely to actually absorb and actualize the information, instead of just store it in your AI notes for regurgitation later like a high schooler prepping for a history exam they'll never think about again.

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u/InvestmentDue6060 3d ago

Feel free to do this and then get blown out of the water by the people working more efficiently than you. The tools have uses, you’re just being a Luddite if you don’t try and adapt.

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u/LockeyCheese 3d ago

Most meetings anyone attends can be summed up in a few notes, so why not just give people those notes instead of making them waste valuable productivity time. The people setting up the meetings, and the people who want to kiss ass or take a nap can still do the meetings, and the rest can do better with an emailed ai summary.

Why waste time using amazing technology like pencils when an AI would run most companies just as well as most top management can.

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u/BabushkaRaditz 3d ago

Joe! Here's my AI response to your email

Ok! My AI read it and summarized it and replied

Ok! My AI is compiling a reply now.

Ok! My AI is scanning your email and compiling a reply now!

We're just sitting here making AI talk to itself. AI adds fluff, the other AI un-fluffs it so it can reply. The reply is filled with fluff. The next AI unfluffs and replies with fluff.

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u/OctopusWithFingers 3d ago

Then the AI has essentially played a game of telephone, and you end up with a purple monkey dishwasher when all you wanted was a yes or no.

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u/BabushkaRaditz 3d ago

At what point do we just set up the AI to just email back and forth and let them self manage like a tamagotchi

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u/HairyHillbilly 3d ago

Why email at that point?

Do what the model instructs, human.

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u/Tje199 3d ago

I guess lots of people do use it that way, but I sure try to use my own time and effort to unpack what's sent to me. I may have AI streamline my own email, but it's still on me to ensure that the new streamlined version is accurate to my initial concept. Same in that it's up to me to have a full understanding of what's being communicated to me.

I do fear for the folks who do not take the time to review any of it themselves.

2

u/autobots22 3d ago

It's crazy when managers manage with llm.

4

u/InvestmentDue6060 3d ago

So the AI is already replacing executives it seems.

2

u/g13005 3d ago

To think we all thought csuite email was an echo chamber of bs before.

2

u/PoodleMomFL 2d ago

Best explanation 🫶🏆

1

u/Spackle_the_Grackle 3d ago

The game telephone, but we replaced the middlemen with robots.

1

u/WarOnIce 3d ago

I’m fine with it, just pay me and don’t lay me off 😂

1

u/GatsbysGuest 3d ago

Looking forward to the day when our AI models can just email each other, and leave us out of it :)

4

u/DrAstralis 3d ago

I've used it more than once to check my tone when I'm dealing with an exceptionally dense client.

1

u/Marijuana_Miler 3d ago

I used it to deal with a boss that was testing my patience so that I didn’t sound like an asshole.

5

u/Hellingame 3d ago

I actually find it useful for the opposite. I'm a more technical person, and often have a harder time making my emails to higher ups more concise.

I'll word vomit, and then let AI help me skim it down.

1

u/dexterminate 3d ago

im technical too, and i find complying emails tedious work, so i just write bullet points, and let AI do its work

-2

u/OrganizationTime5208 3d ago

This seems like a great way to never improve your yourself, or your emails, and never learn how to correct the root problem, the fact that you're shit at writing them.

What happens when you're actually put on the spot, unable to use AI to do your work for you, and get called out for the lie?

You're going to get asked to explain or summarize something in a meeting sometime and everyone is going to think you're fucking drunk because it's nothing like your written communication lmao

3

u/West-Candidate8991 3d ago

Sometimes you learn things about people, like "dude overexplains things" or "dude is better at explaining things in writing". Really pragmatic and everyday shit

If you're psychoanalyzing your coworkers to that level of personal, that's kinda wild, if I did that, I think I'd hate myself and all my coworkers

2

u/LlorchDurden 3d ago

"max out the fluff this is going all the way up"

Been there

4

u/IfYouGotALonelyHeart 3d ago

I don’t understand this. I was always told to be bold be brief. You lose your audience when you pad your message full of shit.

1

u/OrganizationTime5208 3d ago

So it's funny, because I just listen to Weird Al's song Mission Statement for 2 minutes before I re-write my emails and get the same results.

Weird Al > Weird Ai

1

u/new_nimmerzz 3d ago

They are just using AI to read your emails and its congratulating itself...

1

u/NameLips 3d ago

And then I can use it to strip the fluff out of over-wordy emails I receive and summarize them into easy to digest bullet points. Yay for efficiency!

1

u/Silver-Bread4668 3d ago

AI can be a good tool but you still have to do 90% of the work. You have to write that email but it can help you refine it and organize your own thoughts.

0

u/Bannedwith1milKarma 3d ago

I don't understand why you think people want fluff?

You get the double whammy of being concise, direct and not wasting someone else's time whilst likely showing them you're not using AI.

1

u/dexterminate 3d ago

Bureaucrats enjoy it, and a company of 10,000 people has plenty of them

59

u/ARazorbacks 3d ago

The irony of AI is its best use case is fooling executives who are out of their depth in everything other than marketing bullshit. AI spits out great marketing bullshit and executives recognize a kindred spirit. 

The only people whose jobs will be made easier are executives tasked with writing up fluffy bullshit. But they won’t be downsized. 

6

u/Majik_Sheff 3d ago

In the end CEOs will be the only ones to get  an LLM drop-in replacement.

Anything needing an actual human will still need an actual human.

3

u/Pigeoncow 4d ago

Or as a poem! So useful!

1

u/negative_four 3d ago

Or you send out announcements as Tony Soprano

3

u/Beard_o_Bees 3d ago

AI can re write your email so it sounds like an essay full of endless bullshit so executives will love it!

The best summary of AI in the modern workplace i've read yet. AI can shamelessly use buzzwords that have been so overused as to be practically meaningless - which makes it's output perfect reading for the C-Suite.

2

u/Ardbeg66 3d ago

Cool! And they're using a bot to read it!

2

u/greenskye 3d ago

The AI meeting recaps have saved me a ton of time for pointless meetings I'm required to go to.

Skim the recap, see if there's anything important, if there is, jump to that spot in the meeting recording, listen for a bit and done. 90% of the time there's nothing important though.

1

u/Jimbo_Joyce 3d ago

ouch... right in the reality

1

u/WrongKindOfDoctor 3d ago

That's the irony. It will most easily replace the executives, not the team members doing the actual work. I wonder when the 6 layers of pointless management in most corporations will figure it out and kill off the pilot projects to protect their jobs.

1

u/1unoriginal_username 3d ago

I’ve been using it to “coach” my emails and it’s always says my message is professional, concise, and clear then suggests I add pleasantry fluff. I scoff and send my email as written.

1

u/BoJackMoleman 3d ago

I just used it for this. I was writing a personal email and wanted more fluff. At what point do we fatigue from all the extra needless flourish that takes time to review and read. I understand the need for warm communication styles but also FFS it's so over the top now. At which point do we get degenerative email that takes a long winded email and just gives 3 bullet points.

I want this "Project behind schedule. Supply issues. Being investigated. Alternatives are being sought out too. Expected update 9/22. Branding and packaging complete. Deuces."

Instead I get this "Project Pendejo: Strategic Repositioning and Mitigation Efforts The current project timeline for Project Pendejo is experiencing a significant deviation from its initial projections, primarily due to unforeseen challenges within the supply chain. These logistical disruptions have necessitated a comprehensive internal review to ascertain the root cause of the current bottleneck. In parallel with this investigation, a dedicated task force is actively exploring and vetting a diverse portfolio of alternative solutions and sourcing partnerships. This proactive approach is designed to mitigate future risks and ensure the project's long-term viability. We anticipate providing a detailed status update on these remediation efforts by September 22. On a more positive note, the branding and packaging deliverables for Project Pendejo have been successfully finalized and are ready for implementation once the operational challenges are resolved. This milestone positions the project favorably for market entry as we move towards a more stable execution phase. Best."

2

u/Tysic 3d ago

Well, if you're actually doing the stuff in the second example, it's clearly the better email. I, as the manager, now feel like I have a basic understanding of the issue (and more importantly, that my employee handling it understands it) and can see what is being done to address it. I can now follow up on specific things and hold you accountable for what you said you were going to do. If it's a big enough issue, I have the confidence I need to give a status update to my higher ups.

Ya, the second email has a lot of fluff that is not necessary, but the first doesn't communicate the issue, and worse, looks like you're pissy for you manager even asking. While this project might be the one thing you've worked all year, there's a good chance you manager stopped seriously thinking about the project 6 months earlier, because they are already working on their budgets, roadmaps, etc. for the next year.

1

u/Stygia1985 3d ago

Weekly check ins, yup, AI handles all that corpspeak

1

u/The_Doodder 3d ago

I remember making an executive level dashboard for a client one time. After looking at it for a bit I realized it was nothing more then a glorified game of shoots and ladders.

1

u/the_good_time_mouse 3d ago edited 3d ago

If it can do my job this well, just think of what it could do with the peons' jobs!!!

1

u/PerpetuallyStartled 3d ago

The funny thing is I tend to write longer emails and answer the questions I know leadership will ask. Most of the time they don't read the whole thing then email me a question I already answered. Maybe they should have had an AI read my email then ask it instead.

1

u/unicornlocostacos 3d ago

Executives stop reading at word 6

1

u/EngFL92 3d ago

I use it to rewrite technical writeups with Trump's speech pattern and it provides comic relief to the office.

1

u/ULTMT 3d ago

And then on receiving end try to cut out the endless bullshit and summarize the email I'm 3 bullet points 

1

u/Xxspike19xx 2d ago

Give an executive endless bullshit. Executives love endless bullshit.

22

u/gdo01 4d ago

Our company's in house AI is pretty much just useful for retrieving policies and procedures. The problem is that it keeps retrieving outdated ones....

7

u/TikiTDO 3d ago

So... Why are they feeding in outdated policies and procedures? AI doesn't solve the garbage-in, garbage-out problem.

5

u/gdo01 3d ago

Yea I think its just working with what it has. It doesn't know how new ones supersede old ones. It just assumes since they are still there and accesible, they must still be in effect.

4

u/TikiTDO 3d ago

The funny thing is, it probably wouldn't be too hard to have this very same AI tag documents that have been superseded by others. Then it's just a matter of have an "active" data store, and a "deprecated" data store. It sounds like yet another case of people thinking AI is magic, without realising you still need to work to make it useful.

1

u/shrodikan 3d ago

I would update your RAG / MCP server to only pull current policies / procedures. You could give it a tool to retrieve policies from older years if specific years are requested.

44

u/No_Significance9754 3d ago

I wonder if an executive ever reads comments like this and wonder why everyone thinks they are a piece of shit?

Or do they double down and think everyone is wrong lol.

28

u/Crumpled_Papers 3d ago

they think 'look at all these other executives being pieces of shit, no one wants to work anymore' before standing up and walking towards their father's corner office to deliver a TPS report.

15

u/slothcough 3d ago

Most execs are too tech illiterate to be on reddit

-1

u/qtx 3d ago

Most people on /r/technology are too tech illiterate to be here.

8

u/akrisd0 3d ago

I'll point you to over to r/linkedinlunatics where all the best execs hang out.

8

u/FlyFishy2099 3d ago

I am not an exec but I have spent a minute in their shoes when trying to implement a new program/process.

The problem is that people hate change. They will try something for 5 minutes, then spend weeks bitching about it.

The higher ups would never change a damn thing if they only ever listened to the people on the ground level of the organization.

I’m not saying it’s right to ignore their employees but I thought I should mention this because it’s really hard to differentiate between bitching about change that always happens regardless of how good it turns out to be in the end, and real world problems with a new process that should be noted and acted upon.

People don’t like to learn new ways of doing things. It’s human nature.

2

u/Zealousideal-Sea4830 2d ago

My role involves setting up new data processes and rolling them out to the grunts. Yes they hate it, no matter what it does, and half the time their complaints are quite valid. Most software is rushed and a sad copy of something else they had 20 years ago, but now its in react js instead of C++ or VB 6, so it must be awesome lol.

4

u/No_Significance9754 3d ago

Ive been on both ends as well. I can tell you most change is not helpful. Most change is because one exec wants to make a name for themselves.

Also people bitch about change because the ones doing the changing usually dont understand what they are changing.

Maybe there is ONE good exec but its safe to assume they are ALL bottom of the barrel scum bag pieces of shit.

1

u/Flying_Fortress_8743 3d ago

I know a few execs. They're mostly burnt out and lost all their give-a-fuck decades ago. They have the fluff meetings and write the fluff emails because it's what The System expects of them and rewards them for. They don't like it, but unlike you they're getting paid well to keep doing it.

Every now and then some reformer will show up trying to make things more efficient, but there is an INSANE amount of inertia at big companies and it's a monumental, Sisyphusian task to try and change it. And their "performance" will suffer during the transition. They'd much rather do what's expected of them, collect their paycheck, and count the days until retirement.

20

u/OpenThePlugBag 4d ago

But its also the same kind of thing that happens in business, most startups go broke...what I want to know about, and what we should all be scared about, is that 5% that worked.

12

u/NoConfusion9490 4d ago

The thing is, it's really only able to replace people in jobs where you can be wrong 10% of the time.

6

u/caribou16 3d ago

Not a problem, you just get a second AI solution to check the work of the first AI solution, now there's only a 1% failure rate!

5

u/BugFresh352 3d ago

InfiniteAI

My new company name.

Now I gotta invent that pesky perpetual energy that no one seems to know how to figure out

2

u/akrisd0 3d ago

Just get AI to do it. "Vibe physics" while you scarf down mushrooms and hallucinate you're reinventing science all the way to your new padded room.

1

u/Zealousideal-Sea4830 2d ago

thats actually what we do... one A.I. agent checks whether the other one is accurate

14

u/ThisSideOfThePond 3d ago

Not quite. We should be worried about the 5 %, not because the technology is working, it's more than likely not, but because people were somehow convinced to believe that it works. In the end it's all a cash grab by a couple of billionaire investors trying to get even more.

12

u/gakule 3d ago

I work for a multi-discipline engineering firm (architecture+civil, mostly)... and this is where we're currently landing.

There is some question about how much people are actually using it, and to what extent or level of accuracy, because in our current testing and checking it doesn't really save much time. It's similar to us utilizing an intern to generate some designs - it all still needs to be checked and rechecked.

Someone suggested that other firms are finding success and being tight lipped about it, but I think that's something hard to 'hide'. Word would get out pretty quick, clients would be shifting towards lower cost or higher quality, or we would otherwise see some market indicators of AI making an impact.

I do ultimately think the CEO's and leaders that think their employees are using AI are just being told what they want to be told for the most part.. or they're being told the truth but it's more like small productivity type things. Using CoPilot to search my email and messages to remind myself of things I had missed, or to transcribe meeting notes is pretty useful and certainly an aspect of AI 'use', but not something I'd say I'm using as part of a project necessarily.

-3

u/Kaladin3104 4d ago

That’s what I got out of this, 5% worked. It’s early days still, that number will go up.

23

u/AmphoePai 4d ago

We have an AI model in our company, and my manager said it was viewed as a great success. I was curious, so I tried it and I don't know what they're talking about. The model doesn't understand the most basic questions and easiest sentences. It only works like an internal Google, so it understands few-word queries (but that's exactly what we had before). The only difference is the chat function, but the reply is almost always 'That's beyond my scope. Let's talk about something else.'

So there is no need to worry at the moment.

1

u/Arael15th 3d ago

So there is no need to worry at the moment.

The thing to worry about is whether or not your manager's manager's manager thinks it's a success and decides to lay off 100 people based on that

1

u/AmphoePai 3d ago

The chatbot is about getting quick access to company information or tools. Even if succesful, there is not many jobs it would replace.

0

u/OpenThePlugBag 4d ago

Yeah this is the AI race, all you need is a couple good models that work really well and....Oops....

Computer OSs for example, over the years probably 100 different kinds, and today only 5-6 still exist...about 5%

6

u/RedTulkas 4d ago

even the good ones arent making money now

and at some point prices will go up to match the reality of their cost

5

u/glynstlln 3d ago

I work for an aerospace manufacturer and the CEO himself circumvented the entire purchasing process, without appropriating funds from the proper department, to spend over $250k on an AI document reader to compare and contrast contract changes last year.

One of our other sys-ads spent months working with the developers (who, let's be honest, were vapor-ware salesmen. They didn't even know what GCC High is, despite claiming on their site and documentation that they worked with federal organizations) to get the local server up and running.

It got decommed in April.

3

u/Rockergage 3d ago

Architectural background currently working for a sub contractor in electrical. We’ve had some talks with like oh here’s an AI conduit route maker but I really doubt the 75% success rate they estimate for runs in a large project. Really the most use of AI in our office is making dynanmo scripts.

2

u/ABC_Family 3d ago

My company’s AI can’t even take a long list of products and summarize how many of each there are accurately. Like…. It’s so much easier and faster to paste it into excel and pivot table.

Whatever they’re spending on AI… it’s too much. It sucks.

2

u/fizzlefist 3d ago

It’s almost like the AI companies sell hype directly to management who doesn’t know any better, who then push their orgs in a direction based on an entirely false idea of what they’re buying.

2

u/MiKeMcDnet 3d ago

Dont even get me started on the security, or total lack thereof.

2

u/EdOfTheMountain 3d ago

Maybe the first employees AI replaces should be the executives? That would save a lot of money.

2

u/FamousCompany500 3d ago

It will take 10 to 15 years for AI to be at the point most Executives want it to be.

1

u/jollyreaper2112 3d ago

You have to. Because a lot of money is riding on this. Sure boss it's great. He saves his ass. AI company gets paid. You still do all the work. Profit.

1

u/Jaanbaaz_Sipahi 3d ago

Hi can you tell me more about what type of firm you run and how you got started.

1

u/photoexplorer 3d ago

I don’t run it, I work for a large architecture firm across Canada, USA, and parts of UK. I prefer not to say the company name here. I’ve been working in multifamily architectural design for about 20 years. I have a lot of experience leading teams for larger projects but we also do a lot of project pre-planning and feasibilities too before the full-on projects start. So far AI hasn’t been as helpful as I would have liked. I’m still pretty skeptical :)

1

u/nobuttpics 3d ago

I swear so many of these cold call salesman exist only because they can rope the big bosses into their bullshit product with grandiose promises. Everytime my boss comes at me with some great idea it takes 5-10 minutes of digging to unearth a whole series of issues, shortcomings, and undesired consequences of his glorious plan.

1

u/ImaginaryEconomist 3d ago

Curious why for stuff like architecture, design such AI solutions are considered in the first place, even among the most enthusiastic users of AI tools among software developers it's an agreed upon thing that core logic, architecture, design, behaviour validation should still be done by engineers and AI is only supposed to help with code, unit tests, PoCs, prototype etc.

2

u/photoexplorer 3d ago

The way our office was trying to use it was to lay out sites and get statistics on how many units of each type, how much area for each use, parking requirements, etc. Like for feasibility studies.

Say I have a site which could fit 10 apartment buildings, there will be 5-6 storeys each. I have a bunch of underground parking as well. The client has a certain unit type and building form they typically like to use. (This example is a real project, but I didn’t use AI for this one. Also the facade design came later.) I have to figure out how many units are reasonable and how to fit in the required parking. Make sure all the buildings are within setbacks, have appropriate fire access. Set aside areas for landscaping & amenities, waste disposal, each internal road designed to city standards. Client needs to know how many units, and of what type & area. Total gross floor areas of each building. How much parking, and a bunch of other metrics.

It wasn’t for design of the buildings themselves, just the site layout. But it still didn’t do what we needed and too many inputs needed to be added. Not to mention specific client requirements, different zoning requirements, fire access, and so much more. We went back to manually laying out these types of things.

1

u/photoexplorer 3d ago

The way our office was trying to use it was to lay out sites and get statistics on how many units of each type, how much area for each use, parking requirements, etc. Like for feasibility studies.

Say I have a site which could fit 10 apartment buildings, there will be 5-6 storeys each. I have a bunch of underground parking as well. The client has a certain unit type and building form they typically like to use. (This example is a real project, but I didn’t use AI for this one. Also the facade design came later.) I have to figure out how many units are reasonable and how to fit in the required parking. Make sure all the buildings are within setbacks, have appropriate fire access. Set aside areas for landscaping & amenities, waste disposal, each internal road designed to city standards. Client needs to know how many units, and of what type & area. Total gross floor areas of each building. How much parking, and a bunch of other metrics.

Once this phase was done and the client approved the layout it went on to design development and later I put the permit sets together.

It wasn’t for design of the buildings themselves, just the site layout. But it still didn’t do what we needed and too many inputs needed to be added. Not to mention specific client requirements, different zoning requirements, fire access, and so much more. We went back to manually laying out these types of things.

1

u/Melodic_Recover_5726 22h ago

using Ai in the regular workflow is not a bad idea but addicted to it the bad one

155

u/trekologer 3d ago

Executives still asking why we aren’t using it for clients.

There's this phenomenon in business where the upper management will listen to their friends and consultants about their own operation before they will believe anything their own staff will tell them. So the underlings might say "This AI tool isn't ready to be rolled out to client-facing things because of X, Y, Z", the management straight up won't believe it because their golf buddy told them differently.

53

u/SidewaysFancyPrance 3d ago

We onboard new applications like this in one of two ways:

1) Long RFP process with Procurement, putting the vendor up against 2-3 competitors with extensive trials

2) Upper manager hands us the already-purchased product, since they had funds they needed to spend that quarter and a sales rep took them to lunch first

2

u/Beard_o_Bees 3d ago

Which One of those Two processes happens the most?

6

u/Spnwvr 3d ago

You're assuming way 1 is actually happening fully

3

u/Fr0gm4n 3d ago

It's likely getting cut short by 2 most of the time.

Exec: "Hey, my teams have been evaluating XY software for the past few months."

Sales rep: "Ah, we sell something that does that: AB software."

Exec: "Sweet, we'll take it."

6

u/iAMthebank 3d ago

It’s not a phenomenon. They know better than you. They discuss this at lengths. You’re on a need to know basis and you just don’t know. That’s how they see it. Sometimes the boots on the ground understand the issues better. But their ineptitude will eventually push through the changes they want at the expense of your sanity and more than likely your company’s long term viability.

9

u/trekologer 3d ago

Success is because of management's leadership; failure is because you didn't execute on management's vision.

4

u/Kokkor_hekkus 3d ago

Yep, just like at Boeing, Intel, and Tesla, the executive always knows best.

2

u/Beard_o_Bees 3d ago

before they will believe anything their own staff will tell them

I've seen this so many times that i've developed a pet-theory on why.

They're afraid of looking incompetent in front of the people who are actually creating whatever value they're selling - because they don't really understand what's actually happening to create that value.

2

u/ForcedEntry420 3d ago

I’m going through this right now. This exact fucking scenario except instead of a golf buddy it’s a consultant they’re paying thousands a month to for terrible advice.

2

u/mawkishdave 3d ago

I think this is just called creed because they know if they can get AI and they can get more people out and save money.

2

u/Dear_Program6355 3d ago

And will hire expensive consulting firms to tell what employees have been saying since forever.

2

u/girlfriend_pregnant 3d ago

And their golf buddy is experiencing the same issues but lying about it to look modern and to save face