AI Use At Work

This is less a full article, but honestly a retrospective view over the last few weeks as it concerns AI use. This is not meant to be some conclusive crazy intense article, but rather a real look at what AI has been doing behind the scenes where I work.

No, you aren't going to see any crazy business details or anything, it's just simply a collection of items that I've experienced. Okay, I am looping, let's get on with it.

So I have lovingly called this AI slop, but I'll get there in a minute and first explain what I mean by AI communication. If you've ever worked in a business, especially a larger one, communication is essential (as pointless as it may be sometimes) and updates are part of everyone's process. Emails, documents, messages, meetings, releases, etc. - are all forms of communication.

One use of AI is folks using messages, emails, call transcripts, and all of that to create updates and communication to others, IE AI Communication.

The Good

Well... it does indeed make life easier sometimes. I just got done today where my boss showed me how he did weekly updates, and it's pretty darn good. It got me about I would say 60% of the way there without having to dig and think too much. It also does a great job at consolidating information and creating starting templates for documents and such.

The Bad

It's not you, it doesn't understand what you need and the specifics of what you're doing. It only has context for which you give it. This is where "AI slop" comes in; I get documents, communication, and various things from people that are CLEARLY derived from an AI source, and they did zero checking on it. They didn't validate anything, and you're left with a disproportionate amount of work validating the AI's slop in front of you.

Personal Opinion

I am a big fan of less work, more productivity. However, I find that a manager can send me a document, built by AI in 5 seconds, and I have to spend 45 minutes dissecting whatever it is to correct it and make sure it's right, because I am looking at it, it's partly my responsibility when it goes out. There needs to be a cultural adoption that using AI for docs and communication is a START, and not the end goal.

Of course AI has bleed it's way into development; by the way developers, this stuff will advance quickly, so be prepared and adopt it now. We've tested at least one, and I've played online with a few of them too personally.

The Good

It does simplify development if you're using is correctly. It often doesn't aim at solving your immediate problem, but if you need a dump of say a C# code to do something specific, vibe coding will get you over half the way there. You can also train it to get you closer, though I haven't seen it do it 100% correct, or even close to it, in a business setting quite yet.

The Bad

You still have to know what you're doing here. It's not like vibe coding just removes the developer, but it makes the developer job simpler. If you need a block of code that calls an API, get the info back and processes it in a certain way, vibe coding gets you the building blocks - but you have to design the pieces to make them fit. It's less about creating and more about tweaking, which means you learn a little less while you do it.

Personal Opinion

I can't wait to be back in a position where I can use a tool like this. Half the battle of developing, scripting, or automating anything is getting started, hunting for answers, and really getting tunneled visions, and these tools help you get past it. I do however worry for the future. If new blood is only using development tools, they're going to have to find a different way to learn.

Less a "good or bad" thing here and more just a simple observation. AI is absolutely fantastic at getting things done, starting documents, getting communication out, helping solve problems, etc. - however that productivity so far has not provided me any growth at all.

Look, maybe I am old school, but I sigh a little but every time I go to do something and someone tells me to use AI. In some cases okay... dang I don't know where to go or what this is called, AI gives me an answer. Sometimes though, it's like the fun of hunting and figuring it out, or thinking critically about how things connect together is just simply lost, because AI already knows. It's like having a genius coworker that you ask for help on something and they just do it because they don't want to take the time to teach you.

IE I was put on a new team recently, and I've had to use AI a lot recently to get stuff done... and I've been doing it for a month and I've barely learned anything. There's no growth, there's no improvement, just more reliance on AI and it's ability to solve issues. As smart as everyone tells me I am, AI seems to be making me look really dumb sometimes. I need to learn how to use it more effectively AND learn at the same time.

AI was built for productivity; it wasn't built for creativity, though it can do a lot of creative type things. The problem I have here though is that AI cannot replace the feeling and drive a human has to solve a problem. It also can't use emotion to drift into something that comes out beautiful. Everything comes out a little more machine, a little less human.

In addition, critical thinking seems to be going down for people who are relying on AI alone for work. IE, things like AI slop come about. It becomes more about productivity and less about actual implementation of a product. You don't critically think about what's happening in a conversation or on call if all you ever do is feed it through AI - no, AI does that for you. The meeting doesn't even matter at that point. You don't have to pay attention to it, you don't have to worry about putting the pieces together because the AI will do that for you.

It helps you be more productive, but we're not at the point where it's taking over, but it will if no one can figure anything out.

I specifically mention this because it is becoming big everywhere. Things like Zoom, Google Meets, etc. - they all now have AI assistants that literally listen to your calls and turn the entire call into a timestamped transcription. Every word you said, every noise or time someone spoke, some even do inflection analysis... it's captured and sent to you in a doc. It's absolutely insane.

There are even external ones that can summarize, process, give you breakdowns, etc. of everything that happened. Again, insane.

Look, normally not a problem, but people in businesses, when their livelihood is on the line, will do anything to keep their job, even if that means burying someone else. Why make a human connection if you can just read a transcript? Hell, why do you need to be there at all?

Personally I am not a big fan here; I have enough trouble keeping up in meetings, but I have even more trouble reading giant walls of text. Plus it's really hard to be honest and real in a meeting when "big brother" is always watching. I find myself becoming quieter, more reserved, and just listening more. Not a bad thing, but I am not standing up for myself or my team as much either. Give and take I guess.

Every business right now recognizes the impact AI will have to help make them operate better and more efficiently. Understandable for sure. However, it seems like every leader right now has found a new company, a new system, a new agent, or a new chatbot version that they want to implement. There's absolutely an oversaturation at least where I am at of incoming stuff. Most people can't get used to one of them before another one comes along.

In addition, goals have start to come out, and now AI is a required goal of everyone in some way or form. All of the AI tools are so different, and we all have limited access to different tools, and half of the engineers have never used it much... so how in the world are they going to make goals around it?

It's just absolute overload.

I remember the moment I started questioning everything. An event happened that was causing some issues with functionality of the system. Upon reviewing the message room for the incident... it looked like robots talking to each other. The responder was posting different AI summaries in the room, some directors were asking chatbots what they should do and posting the responses, and managers were summarizing tickets, actions, and slack messages into chat messages, and our system that sends automated messages to the room, was constantly spamming it with updates.

I thought about that room for a moment while looking at it... is this what the future looks like? Humans using machines to do all their work, but no real action being taken? Did anyone even review the other's messages? Was this essentially just AI talking to AI through humans? Where was the fun banter, chatty conversations about what was happening, or the confused leader hopping in there after the issue was resolved and asking for a summary right below the summary?

And then as I reflected on that room, I realized where part of my struggle was; I was on a new team, with a new set of technology I hadn't worked with, in a position I wasn't even remotely interested in... and every time I went to do something, I have someone shoving AI in my face. Honestly, it got the job done. I need to build a dash, the AI figured it out in like 5 mins. I needed an interview template, my boss spun one up with AI. We needed job descriptions, AI. I needed to type up weekly reports, AI. I have been integrating it into my role, but I've learned virtually nothing. I literally could do all of this stuff without AI, but since AI is there and everyone knows it makes things faster, the expectation was to get the job done... not to actually be good at what I do. It was very disheartening to come to that conclusion.

However, it's not like I don't see the power in AI. If I was still in Ops, AI would be my best buddy. I'll take the tools, the vibe coding, and all that stuff and make things work amazing. If I was still coding NodeJS, AI could shave a bunch of tunnel visioned research I did. When I was over a different team, data was painfully manual and AI could've helped me pull data.

It's very interesting the way this is all playing out. The future is coming fast!