Buckle up, people: some executives are already sick of AI
Executives still profess enthusiasm for AI adoption, asking employees to use it across the board. But beneath the surface, a sort of mass entrepreneurial discontent is brewing – one boss simply banned the use of AI in their company, and another threatened to instantly fire anyone caught using it.
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Executives still profess enthusiasm for AI adoption, asking employees to use it across the board. But beneath the surface, a sort of mass entrepreneurial discontent is brewing – one boss simply banned the use of AI in their company, and another threatened to instantly fire anyone caught using it.
- Nearly half of executives call enterprise AI adoption disappointing, citing weak value and resistance
- Now, some leaders are banning AI outright after inaccurate outputs, sloppy communication, and falling conversions
- For many companies, AI now looks costlier than workers it's supposed to replace
The story, essentially illustrating that quite a few executives are turning against the wave of mass AI implementation, was told by tech commentator and AI consultant Joe Procopio.
On Inc, Procopio says he recently received an email from a tech company CEO who said he was banning all AI use across his organization – no exceptions, no limitations, absolute totality.
“Now, I’ve seen all kinds of companies place limited bans on AI, and for smart reasons, like security and compliance issues, or to take back control over unchecked technical debt, and there was even one CEO who threatened to ‘fire the next person’ who sent him a ChatGPT-written email without editing out the slop,” writes Procopio.
“But I’m yet to see a tech company of a certain size and revenue establish a total ban on Claude and his friends.”
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The anonymous executive actually called his move a complete cease-and-desist order: “Do not engage with LLMs at any time, for any reason, across the entire organization from sales and marketing to engineering and QA.”
Why? Well, more generally, executives seem to be opening their eyes to the harsh reality: AI doesn’t actually help companies very much, and using the tech is indeed more expensive than hiring humans.
And since the bottom line across all businesses is to not lose money, the results of another recent survey aren’t that surprising.
AI doesn’t actually help companies very much, and using the tech is indeed more expensive than hiring humans.
A Writer’s poll found that nearly half (48%) of executives now describe enterprise AI adoption as a “massive disappointment” and cite, among other things, missing measurable value and severe frontline resistance within their companies.
However, in the aforementioned case, the executive was forwarded an AI-generated, factually inaccurate email allegedly written by a human customer support agent to a customer.
Another agent basically snitched on his colleague after receiving the said email from an angry customer.
Has your password leaked?
The CEO immediately asked for more examples of “that crap.” Soon, numerous similar letters full of AI slop landed on his desk.
Besides, the boss – after digging into additional data with the sales team – also realized that the chaotic use of AI agents was responsible for a significant slump in conversion rates. What followed next was a total AI ban across the board.
Will the ban be permanent? Here’s what the CEO told Procopio: “I don’t know if it’s permanent. But I know I need to say it’s permanent, partly so I can suss out the people who used AI to hide, and now they’re exposed. At least AI did that.”
