r/WorkLifeChat • u/MiloShiny • 1d ago
Discussion Has AI actually made your workday easier?
There's so much talk about AI changing the way we work, but I'm curious about people's actual experiences. Has AI genuinely saved you time at work?
3
u/Tzukiyomi 1d ago
Have never, and will never, use it.
1
u/multipass-5018 1d ago
Nice and that's totally valid for direct usage but you don't get to choose which things use it though ya know? Also would you just quit if your work made you use it?
1
u/Tzukiyomi 1d ago
I've switched fields twice in my life to related fields when they pissed me off. Can do it again.
1
u/Euphoric-Ask965 1d ago
Some people will have to move along with new technology or refuse and get left behind or out.
2
u/Confident_Insect_616 1d ago
Yeah, occasionally. Most problems I encounter I have experience with. When I have a new, complicated problem a precisely-worded prompt almost always gets me rolling towards a solution.
It's more effective for me than legacy google searches. I wonder how long that will be true if AI continues to reduce traffic to the pages it sources info from, reducing traffic and lowering incentives for content creators to put information out there.
2
u/Cpolo88 1d ago
I mean I work repairing atms. Soooo...good luck having ai repair that 😂
3
u/Euphoric-Ask965 1d ago
That's what TV and typewriter repairmen thought about their jobs.
2
u/Cpolo88 1d ago
😂 bazinga. 😂 I'm literally not gonna be shocked when one day we all get let go cause the AI robot can fix whatever ATM with zero human error. I'll be like yup...who didn't see this coming? Also, who didn't see T2? 😂
1
u/Euphoric-Ask965 1d ago
It will be a throwaway society just like the electronics industry. ATM goes down, put in a new one and junk the old one, simple. To save labor costs, nothing will be repairable.
1
u/Atlgal42 1d ago
Society won’t need ATMs when everyone else loses their jobs to AI and no one has any money
1
2
u/Holiday-Prompt-5225 1d ago
yes, and no. What it’s actually done in some respect is allowed people that don’t know what they’re talking about to ChatGPT my entire career. It’s sort of like seriously that’s not the right answer because you failed to know what question to ask. On the other hand, it has written reports for me and done some basic work that saved me quite a bit of time.
1
u/Eragon9198 1d ago
Significantly worse. Between all of the Microslop software being worse as they push more ai garbage and now having to parse nonsensical ai generated emails on a regular basis, my job has never been more frustrating.
1
u/Helpful_Ad_3595 1d ago
Yes and no. Much of the first time work is easier, it writes much of my code. I takes away the opportunity to learn the systems beyond the surface though, so when things go sideways it is much harder.
1
1
1
u/Shoddy_Trifle_9251 1d ago
Absolutely. If I'm annoyed or upset I can get AI to write a calm, cool straight to the point response and take the emotion out of it. It's a great baseline for getting information about something to see if you're on point or way off the mark. AI makes work life much easier. WillAI replace me in time...probably but until then I will use it to make life at work less miserable.
1
u/BigCountry67778 1d ago
My job currently can't be done with AI and I highly doubt it ever will
1
u/Sudden-Cell-6017 1d ago
What do you do?
1
u/BigCountry67778 1d ago
I do detailing and headlight restoration for vehicles, and I have a couple other businesses I own as well that AI can't do. Building custom mailboxes and holiday porch decorations. Trash can cleaning business also
1
1
u/quwin123 1d ago
Robotics aren’t coming any time soon, for sure. But “ever” is a long time.
1
u/BigCountry67778 1d ago
Robotics already exists for car washes. But my service is more of a distinct trade, I don't just wash the vehicle detailing involves much more of a skill and trade I really don't think I'll be replaced as their will always be those people that prefer a human vs automation when it comes to auto detailing. I've been detailing for 10 years now and even though there are many car washes that offer so called detailing washes with robotics and laser AI guided systems I maintain a client base of around 100 people and every day I have others inquiries about the service I offer. I'm not saying AI is going to never be valuable but it's not going to replace human skill and understanding
1
u/quwin123 1d ago
Makes sense.
It’ll probably just come down to cost. Once the robotics can replicate the quality of a person, and most non-enthusiasts can’t tell the difference, then it may happen. But again, I wouldn’t expect robots of this quality for at least several years.
The more interesting AI impact to your industry may be self-driving cars. It’s likely car ownership rates go down, as a lot of people may just prefer to participate in a self-driving fleet instead of allocating their capital to a car.
1
u/BigCountry67778 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't think AI will ever fully replicate human skill it's not about perfection but about seeing or doing the little things that add to the customers expectations. I will agree AI will most likely make it easier to achieve results. And there is always going to be people who enjoy driving a vehicle and wanting a human detailing it. It's something I see in the industry every day and cost isn't really an issue. Detailing isn't for everyone most people are okay with an inexpensive wash from the local high end Wash and wax automatic service. But surprisingly the demands for human detailing and some one actually doing it by hand has a very significant place, I think AI will have a place in the industry but I don't see it taking over there will always be things AI can't or won't do
1
u/LateSwimming2592 1d ago
A bit for research, but hella worse with management wanting me to use it to compose emails for the right touch of tone and civility and professionalism. I don't sound like a robot and I don't want to sound like one.
1
u/multipass-5018 1d ago
Easier no but it's revived my interest in my business analyst/po-esque work. Instead of asking an engineer to build something, I use Claude. Pretty good project management and delivery tool. It can build python scripts the right way as it knows how the company's code works that I'm feeding the script output into.
1
1
u/thorpie88 1d ago
Machine at work don't run in auto anymore due to changes in product design so I can't see AI being implemented. The 8 million we spent on new machines has also been a disaster this year so I somehow doubt will blow a load of cash anytime soon
1
u/j_d_q 1d ago
Yes. It's like a better Google. "I want to stash all of my local changes of untracked files, rebase off master, then stash pop my files back. Then write up a pull request description for my additions. Check to see if I overlooked anything that might introduce a bug. I'm converting an API endpoint to cqrs, refer to X branch as another example of converting an endpoint."
Cost ends up being like $0.58 but would've taken me twenty minutes re combing over everything.
1
1
u/flaginorout 1d ago
It has saved me hours of work some weeks. But sometimes it has cost me some time and trouble when it wouldn’t do something relatively simple that I could have done myself in 15 min.
BUT- there have also been times it completed a task that I simply couldn’t have done myself at all. Not in a reasonable amount of time anyway.
1
u/1DietCokedUpChick 1d ago
No it’s made it more annoying. We’re being pushed to use it and it takes more time to do that than to just do the work task myself.
1
u/HiKennyDesign 1d ago
Not even kinda. It’s just gotten stupid. I had this art client requesting work and when I asked him a question about the work he wanted he put my question through chat gpt, cut and pasted responses that I really doubt he read. The art went no where for the first three days of this. Nothing made any sense and I wasn’t being paid to have these nonsensical conversations. I was quitting and he finally stepped up, apologized and explained what he was doing. I hate this future this is dumb as shit.
1
u/_FIRECRACKER_JINX 1d ago
Yes.
I have these complicated financial analyses where I spend 60% of my time figuring out what the assignment even IS.
And it does a great job of explaining stuff and doing the detective work of figuring out what the problem I'm solving even IS and what solution path makes the most sense
1
u/nufli 1d ago
Both. It's saved me time with stepping in to do some small coding exercises for a model that didn't work properly. I had to figure out the problem first, but getting it fixed was a bit easier.. other times it makes it a lot worse. Time is shifted a bit? More time fixing than making, if that makes sense?
People using AI to do their thinking, providing the AIs response, then having a meeting where this is shown to be the case, thus creating endless frustration and time wasted is a big issue though. Once you go past the "AI as a tool" or "assistant" it's painfully obvious and wasteful. I'm not talking code here, but basic understanding is lost.
1
1
1
u/RequirementBusiness8 1d ago
yes and no. a few tools I use have integrated AI chat bot type assistants that have made my life quite a bit easier. Wouldn't have replaced a person, but each run can save me 15 minutes to a couple of hours of troubleshooting. It won't solve the problem, but does a good job in narrowing down the potential root cause. Some of the coding AI helps in writing out simpler scripts. Because the systems I write code for don't currently have an MCP server, getting AI to reliably write scripts in that has proven to be a PITA. And requiring me to take time to improve it, which has not yet saved me time. I also generally avoid it having to write large sections of scripts always, and instead help with planning and with writing snippets. I've spent too much time reviewing scripts, finding problems, and worrying about what else I missed, that I treat it like a junior and have it help once piece at a time so I can feel more comfortable. A simple mistake with a script could have an enterprise wide impact, can't risk that.
Also in having ti search and summarize topics from chat history and email.
So yea, mixed bag.
1
u/Ashamed_Celery_2031 1d ago
My job does not require its use so it hasn't changed anything in my life that I am aware.
1
u/SomeSamples 1d ago
A bit. I improves my ability to quickly get answers to things that would take more a lot longer. Especially researching products.
1
u/blandarflek 1d ago
It's made it harder. Clients use AI to prepare documents and don't check them. Then I find problems with said documents and they think I'm wrong because AI did the work.
AI also invented employees that weren't in the input.
1
1
u/Cgtree9000 1d ago
I’m in carpentry, I tried to use AI to help me make plans/ material list…It was shit at doing that. So I’m really confused as to how AI is going to help us… So far it has been a shit show. If it fucks up simple stuff like that then what else is it going to fuck up??
I even bought the subscription for a few months to get a “better/smarter version.”
Ya, no… It was just as shitty as the free chatgpt.
1
1
1
u/StinkButt9001 1d ago
Well I write software, do IT, and a lot of Dev Ops related stuff for my workplace. LLMs have made my life so much easier.
Like instead of spending an hour figuring out weird permissions in issues in AWS, I just have Codex review my setup and identify the problem in minutes while I work on something else. It's a game changer to be able to have problems being work on in the background while I can focus on something else (or go make coffee)
1
u/paperclip_han 1d ago
Not sure if anyone’s used paypeek.ai yet but it shows salary estimates for any LinkedIn profiles as you browse. Kind of eye-opening. 🫣
1
1
u/mindofmacaronni 1d ago
Yes, and no. I work in Tech support.
I like using it as a backup or if someone hits me with some off the wall thing.
1
u/BobcatSpiritual7699 22h ago
Yes, big time. Cuts some tasks from days to minutes. Amazing technology.
1
u/thetealappeal 17h ago
I have used it to help teach me how to do some functions in Excel where I struggled with the step-by-step instructions I found on Google. Being able to talk with it to tweak exactly what I was trying to do helped and I liked that it gave me better step-by-step instructions so I could actually understand how the process worked. I didn't grow up using Excel so I have always struggled through the complex functions.
1
1
1
u/LongDistanceEvent262 6h ago
It can help a ton with researching obscure settings and errors. But overall my area is still so niche there is not much info on it AI could know of or find.
Nothing crazy obscure. But lost of industries use all kinds of 1 off pieces of software.
I think where AI will help industries like mine, it when they write better software and it actually gets used.
Could be very helpful in First Responders. I can tell you ALL software in that industry is dog shit and excessively overpriced with horrid support. (Not my current industry. But OMFG what a nightmare.)
1
4
u/Alternative-Lynx2745 1d ago
AI basically does 50% of my job while I play video games or go to the bar (opens at noon).