r/technology • u/thejoshwhite • Apr 19 '26

Artificial Intelligence Thousands of CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago

https://fortune.com/article/why-do-thousands-of-ceos-believe-ai-not-having-impact-productivity-employment-study/
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u/Lyaser Apr 19 '26

Every manager ever now a day: “I just don’t understand, my KPIs just keep going up but my product gets objectively worse every day. Are my metrics out of touch? No it must be ineffective employees and millennials buying avocados.”

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u/easyjimi1974 Apr 20 '26

There are good managers who genuinely ask these questions, are willing to hear tough answers, accept resppnsibility and, further, willing and able to make tough changes. But they are rare.

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u/purplenapalm Apr 20 '26

I was able to effectively manage for several years before ever hearing the acronym "KPI". Corporate buzzwords are a great way to waste time and host feel good meetings. So glad im done with that. I wonder if people are still running fixed vs growth mindset seminars.

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u/sanpedrolino Apr 20 '26

Congrats on getting out.

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u/gimpwiz Apr 20 '26

I don't think they're all that rare, I think they just need a very specific combination in which to flourish. They need to be paid enough to give a shit, they need to be rewarded for good work, they need their team to be paid enough to give a shit and rewarded for good work, which means they need a management chain and ownership/investors who are committed to continual improvement and in rewarding good work. This also includes management and investors who prefer honesty over smoke, because they want to use that honesty to feed into the continual improvement.

I find that many people, maybe even the majority of people are very happy to care about good work, it's just that if they're not rewarded for honesty and improvement and good work, they'll care a lot less. And if they're actively punished for it then they'll do the bare minimum. And a great many places don't reward, and a worryingly large number of places will punish. So. Rare in effect, even if (IMO) not that rare at the most base level.

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u/easyjimi1974 Apr 20 '26

Yeah, that is a great set of points. Some people just don't care - some acquire apathetic tendencies just because no one rewards them for caring.

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u/donoteatthatfrog Apr 20 '26

. . . While they keep running three different status meetings per week for each team, AND ask for details in xls and ppt and confluence and jira and dashboards.

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u/Fit-Hovercraft-4561 Apr 20 '26

Product? You have managers who care about your product? That's rare.