Good AI innovation means focusing on workflow not cutting jobs

"When I was an engineer at Stripe circa 2017, I pitched a machine learning system that would cut our support headcount in half. I thought I was solving the biggest cost to the company: people. After all, isn't that the point of automation? The head of support's response caught me off guard: "Congratulations. You've automated the easy part." I realized the real problem was the workflow. Agents were toggling between 10 different tools."

"Cutting labor costs in the name of AI has often proven to be a losing proposition. Take Klarna, for example: in early 2024, their OpenAI-powered assistant took on the workload of nearly 700 support agents, but that bet didn't stick. By mid-2025, the company began rehiring human agents, acknowledging that customers still want empathy, and that AI needs human oversight to deliver quality service."

"The companies actually moving the ball forward on AI aren't fear mongering about its potential or laying off entire teams. They're rethinking how work gets done. They're investing in programs and structures to accelerate learning and experimentation, helping employees evolve and drive efficiency alongside the technology. It's the combination of humans and AI that unlocks AI's full potential-not AI-only at all costs, which only serves to sow reticence among the very people we need to move it forward."

Automating roles alone rarely yields lasting savings when underlying workflows remain broken. Disconnected tools, siloed institutional knowledge, and manual routing create process friction that inflates costs more than headcount. Successful organizations prioritize orchestration across systems, roles, and feedback loops, and pair AI with human oversight to preserve empathy and quality. Investments in programs and structures that enable learning, experimentation, and employee evolution drive efficiency gains alongside technology. High-profile automations that cut staff without redesigning workflows often fail, prompting rehiring and reconciliation. Real value emerges from redesigning processes to integrate AI as a component within coordinated, human-centered operations.

Read at Fast Company