Welcome back from leave. Your job is completely different.
Employees returning from leave are finding their workplaces transformed by rapid AI integration, leading to feelings of obsolescence and confusion. The article explores how AI tools are changing workflows and hiring processes, creating a disconnect for workers who have been away for even short periods.
Why it matters
The rapid pace of AI adoption is creating a 'skills gap' and psychological stress for workers, impacting job security and workplace culture.
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI Ashley Wallace returned to her job after six months of maternity leave and met a new coworker: Claude . Before her leave, Wallace used ChatGPT to answer questions and some basic automations for notetaking or recruiting in her role as head of talent at the AI language-learning app Praktika. "I came back thinking, oh, I'll ease myself in," she says. "It definitely isn't the case in the landscape that I came back to." During her absence, the company had ushered in Claude Cowork — and Wallace didn't even know where to find the new system everyone was talking about on her computer. Add to her new reality that AI has rocked the job hunt process . Instead of the typical few hundred people applying for open roles at the startup, Wallace returned to find more than 1 ,000 vying for some jobs .
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