The Wave Is Coming
I recently read the AI at work is anti-labor by design article. The author argues that AI adoption is fundamentally about eliminating workers, not empowering them. That bosses push LLMs because they’re cheaper than your coworker’s salary (so they can keep their lifestyles), not because they’ll make your work better.
The human cost is undeniable. We’ve seen Amazon lay off 14,000 people and Pinterest cut 15% of its staff. These aren’t just numbers on a balance sheet: they represent mortgages, families, and careers upended. And the correlation between “AI adoption” announcements and these painful reductions is hard to ignore.
But is correlation the same as causation? However I see this as more nuanced: this isn’t new behavior. This is old behavior, accelerated.
The Economic Reality
Business incentives have always leaned toward efficiency. From the first assembly line to modern software, the drive to do more with less isn’t new. Automation, outsourcing, and optimization are constant pressures. AI is simply the latest iteration of this trend, the promise that.
What AI changes isn’t the direction of the market. It changes the velocity.
The Nature of the Work Exposed
AI forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality about knowledge work: many tasks were largely mechanical, waiting for a machine capable enough to do them.
Roles that involved mostly shuffling information, reformatting data, or bridging gaps between disconnected systems were filling a technological void. We were doing the work the software couldn’t do yet.
Any workflow that can be reduced to “take input X, apply rules, produce output Y” was always going to be automated eventually. It started with factories, moved to spreadsheets, and has now reached complex reasoning. AI hasn’t changed the destination, only the arrival time.
Memento Mori for Knowledge Workers
I write this knowing I’m not immune. My role might feel safe today, but I hold a constant memento mori: this threat will come for me too.
The question isn’t “will the wave reach me?” It’s “when?” And more importantly: “what will I do when it does?”
Three Responses to the Wave
Watching colleagues across the industry, I see three distinct responses emerging:
1. Stand Ahead of the Wave
Double down on deep expertise. Focus on judgment, taste, and human connection—the things that remain stubbornly difficult to automate.
This is the safest position, but requires the privilege of time to maintain.
2. Ride the Wave
Use AI as a force multiplier. Let it propel you further than you could have gone alone. Accept that riding waves is inherently risky (you might be swept backwards) but embrace the potential to be propelled exponentially forward.
This is my current strategy: it has higher variance, a lot of time invested in uncertain outcomes, but has the chance of propelling exponentially forward.
3. Stand Against the Wave
Pretend nothing is happening. Refuse to engage. Declare yourself a Luddite and hope the wave passes.
Waves do pass and bubbles burst. But if this one does so with immense force, it will be even harder to resist.
Breaking the Deadlock
A question for who staunchly resist: The article criticizes bosses for wanting to keep their salaries and lifestyles by cutting costs through AI. Fair critique.
It’s a brutal deadlock. Companies cut costs to become leaner; workers fight to keep the roofs over their heads.
While the power dynamics aren’t remotely equivalent (executives have golden parachutes - workers have mortgage payments) the underlying tension is about survival and the ineherent human self-preservation need.
Here’s where it becomes a trap: myopic bosses want to cut employees because they don’t see productivity gains. Employees don’t provide gains because they resist the tools. The boss sees the resistance as confirming their decision. The employee sees the cuts as confirming their suspicion. Both spiral downward.
There’s no guaranteed exit, but there is a path through: becoming the person who wields the tool. If we can do in two hours what used to take two days, we become harder to replace than the automation itself.
And if the wave crashes over us anyway, we’ve at least built new muscles. Structuring our own resilience in an ever-changing world is better than pretending it’s static.
And if we’re honest that everyone is just trying to survive, the irony is sharp: fighting the tools might actually be the riskiest way to protect yourself.
The Real Question
When the wave passes (and it will) where will the pieces be?
I don’t know yet where I want things to fall. But I know I want to be part of the force deciding it, not watching it happen.
That’s worth spending time figuring out before the water settles.
The wave is coming. The only choice is how you meet it.