How AI is exposing the BS economy

"Artificial intelligence is advancing at an unprecedented rate, capable of generating pitch decks, summarizing meetings, writing RFPs, analyzing spreadsheets, and even sending our avatars to video call meetings. Yet, for all the noise around productivity gains and disruption, most organizations are still stuck in neutral, disappointed by the underwhelming results of their various AI pilots. The recent MIT report noted that while AI pilots with tools like ChatGPT and Copilot were improving individual productivity, vanishingly few were contributing to P&L improvement."

"If these tools are making individuals more productive, but that's translating into company performance, we have to ask-what's the point of that work? The dirty secret? AI is is revealing just how much work doesn't need to exist in the first place. Welcome to the BS economy. Defining the BS Economy The term "BS jobs" was coined by anthropologist David Graeber to describe roles that are, even in the eyes of those performing them, fundamentally pointless."

Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, generating pitch decks, summarizing meetings, writing RFPs, analyzing spreadsheets, and sending avatars to video calls. AI pilots such as ChatGPT and Copilot often improve individual productivity but rarely drive P&L improvement. Increased individual output without company performance gains reveals many tasks and roles that add no true business value. The term "BS jobs" describes roles perceived as fundamentally pointless, including middle managers producing presentations and consultants writing unread reports. The BS economy emerges when such roles scale and normalize, rewarding process, optics, and bureaucracy over purpose and outcomes, sustained by rituals like long, useless meetings.

Read at Fast Company