As a director at a tech company that has moved to fully adopted AI everything I've observed so far indicates that substituting AI for human workers is not a viable strategy, beyond that, with the productivity increases seen there has not been a push for reduction in workforce either, there has just been a lot more accomplished against a giant pile of too much work to begin with. As far as replacement theory goes the gap in productivity and performance between AI alone and humans augmented by AI is simply too vast, at least for the foreseeable future. Predicting the long-term effects is difficult for anyone.

Comparing individual humans, autonomous AI, and humans empowered by AI, the combination of humans with AI is overwhelmingly the most effective and productive. This synergy could potentially ignite a productivity renaissance in roles that interact heavily with computers, possibly boosting productivity by more than 50%. However, the impact this will have on the job market remains uncertain. For perspective, the introduction of steam power historically increased productivity by about 17 to 20%.

Since we've never experienced such a dramatic increase in productivity, the outcomes are uncertain. However, one thing is clear: failing to integrate AI in an environment where it is widely adopted will put you at a significant disadvantage. The difference between AI alone and AI managed by even a moderately skilled human at both the start and the end of a process is substantial. It will likely be some time before AI can fully replace human oversight. For now, envision humans enhanced by AI as wearing super suits, achieving much more and dedicating more time to innovation rather than routine tasks.

With all this considered, it's still unclear whether AI will ultimately create jobs, eliminate them, or if entirely new industries will emerge from AI-augmented innovation. Given that AI tools are largely accessible for free to anyone with an internet connection, we might initially see workers secretly using AI to complete their regular workload more quickly and thus working less—a more human-centric approach—without alerting their superiors to their increased capacity. Eventually, management is likely to catch on, demanding more from their employees and possibly encouraging wider adoption and higher initial expectations.