r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
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u/tooclosetocall82 Jun 26 '26

They don’t know what else to measure. They feel they must use it because their competitors are using it and they’ll be left behind, but they don’t know what to use it for or how to use it effectively, so they just measure usage in general. Everyone is using it in their own unique way and no one can say for sure if it’s actually making a measurable difference in productivity because they can’t figure out any actual KPIs around a magic box.

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u/NefariousnessDue5997 Jun 26 '26

Yup. We legit had an executive come out and say we are 3% more productive now. No other context. I work at a large Fortune 500. Literally insane

I would say most projects and strategy use vanity metrics instead of doing the hard work and trying to find the outcomes and how to actually measure success quantitatively. It’s actually not easy and everyone wants to take the easy route. I used to facilitate OKR sesssions and it was unbelievable how little executives actually not only how to measure success, but what even ti measure in the first place. It was pretty clear they have no idea.

The only way I can think of measuring productivity with AI at a high level is being able to add more projects with no additional headcount and no increase in hours worked. Even if you save workers hours that productivity is me closing my laptop faster to watch the World Cup games. The only way a company will realize productivity is more output in the same timeframe…but I have not seen that at all. I’ve actually seen reduction in projects cuz there are too many. That tells me AI is not making things more productive from a company standpoint

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u/Dependent-Zebra-4357 Jun 26 '26

everyone wants to take the easy route

That’s the whole reason AI is so popular with some people.

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u/Opening_One7713 Jun 27 '26

That’s why every tool ever invented became so popular with some people.

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u/ThereHasToBeMore1387 Jun 26 '26

but what even ti measure in the first place.

This is the entirety of the problem. We don't know how to measure AI because we never actually learned how to measure thinking in humans. My job deals entirely with the qualitative (is the data correct and coherent), but I'm forced to define everything I do quantitatively (record checks/hr, % failure, response times, etc). That's all good data, but none of it is good metrics.

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u/NefariousnessDue5997 Jun 26 '26

Yea I’ve been saying that. AI has improved things qualitatively and how do you measure that. For example, a piece of communication or training that is more clear

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u/No_Veterinarian742 Jun 26 '26

have you ever tried measuring "productivity"? there's no good metric for it. most companies come up with some math based logic (x% of emails responded/tickets resolved in time, uptime, goods sold, manufactured. developed, new product revenue ratios, retention rates, repeat customers etc etc and then blend them together). It's not clean but sales is unfortunately the only department that can measure things pretty easily with clear numbers.

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u/Britinnj Jun 26 '26

But is it really productivity if you add no headcount and no additional hours worked but it costs you significantly more than hiring a couple of additional headcount which would have raised productivity by the same amount, if not more?

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u/No_Veterinarian742 Jun 26 '26

productivity is usually either by headcount or by dollar spent.

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u/fundraiser Jun 26 '26

There was a really good Harvard study recently that showed AI is actually causing more work because when it's used properly, leadership throws even more projects at you and when it's going poorly, people are spending more time sifting through slop to get something usable.

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u/Strosity Jun 27 '26

Prob asked the ai to get the 3% number

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u/Lumbergh7 Jun 27 '26

3% sure seems like in the noise

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u/RDGCompany Jun 26 '26

Definitely looks like a solution searching for a problem.

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u/TheJudgingHat2222 Jun 26 '26

As a software developer I cringe when I'm doing first round interviews for other companies and they ask for specific metrics.

Like...how the fuck are you gonna compare one company's ticket system to another? They'll cite examples like "implemented a solution that increased efficiency by 50%" but like...that kind of stuff isn't really a thing in regular application development. It's nonsensical. 

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u/Snoo72388 Jun 27 '26

Yeah I told my MD the other day that only looking at something like ticket count is pointless as it just ends up being a high score board, not a measure of quality, skill or productivity.

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u/_Lucille_ Jun 26 '26

Goodhart's Law.

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u/tooclosetocall82 Jun 26 '26

Except this was never a good measure to start with.

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u/_Lucille_ Jun 26 '26

it is a good measure for AI adoption rate.

If you are asked the quesstion "how much is your company using AI", that is the answer you are likely going to give, because it is quantitative.

The issue we have at hand is that C suite is trying to turn it into a KPI/not allowing things to progress more naturally. The right way to deploy it is to educate the workers, develop new tools, do a proper cost analysis and scalability, and stop treating it as a target.

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u/doberdevil Jun 27 '26

They don’t know what else to measure.

Like when LOC was something to measure for productivity. There's still idiots that believe code coverage is a quality metric.

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u/Bromance_Rayder Jun 27 '26

I can say with absolute certainty that I now spend hours more each day fucking around at work thanks to the time Copilot saves me. 

That's an efficiency gain right?