Gatekeeping bots, piles of slop: Welcome to the age of AI weirdness at work
Employees are increasingly reporting workplace friction caused by the uncoordinated use of AI tools and automated agents. The article highlights instances where AI-driven communication has led to professional delays and confusion regarding human accountability.
Why it matters
Highlights the growing pains of AI integration in professional environments and the potential for technology to disrupt human-centric business operations.
Somewhere in Chicago, one 40-year-old project director spent her summer wondering if she's been working with a human or a bot.
She was recently put on a project with an artificial intelligence expert who started using AI agents to manage his inbox. But in the course of their partnership, the bots began filtering out important emails and texts, leading to delays delivering on promises to their client and no other way to reach him, the project director tells CNBC Make It.
Now, despite previously being in touch over phone and video calls, she says her team can't reach the AI expert to honor their contract and pay him for the finished work. "I actually looked up their local speaking engagements to see if I could just go maybe meet them," the project director says. At this point, she's second-guessing whether he's even a real human.
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