WARNING: The AI “empowerment” Roadmap is a Trap(Specialist Work for Generalist Pay)
I’m posting this as a warning regarding the recent corporate meetings about integrating AI into our workflow. They are pitching this as a way to "empower" us so we won't have to deal with simple, repetitive tasks.
Do not blindly accept this vision. Here is the reality of what they are actually doing…
Because the new AI tools are supposed to "help" deflect the easy tasks, leadership is forcing us to absorb a much wider scope of responsibilities end to end. We are expected to take on a heavier workload and handle complex tasks that we never used to handle. They are piling on more work, turning us into advanced escalation specialists, but keeping us at the exact same generalist pay.
During my department's Q&A, leadership was directly asked the elephant in the room question of If our scope is expanding and we are taking on a heavier workload, how will we be compensated, and how are you addressing the massive burnout risk? They completely dodged the pay question. They framed the restructure as a lateral move and claimed the AI itself would magically relieve our stress.
They are gambling our mental health on early stage tech. They have no idea if this system works yet, but they are fully prepared to squeeze us for more labor while we beta test it for them and burn out quicker from the expanded workload
Do not let them gaslight you. They claim to care about colleague wellbeing but they are using AI for their bottom line not for your benefit.
Ask the hard questions. If you are in these roll out meetings, ask about compensation in the public chat. Force them to dodge it where everyone can see.
Protect your metrics. Document every time the new systems give you a wrong answer or slow you down. Do not burn yourself out trying to manually fix their broken tech just to keep your numbers up. Let the system fail if it's going to fail.
Keep your eyes open. They are building this for them not for us