My old boss laughed when I said AI would replace our data entry team. Guess who's not laughing now.

Back in 2021 my manager at a logistics company in Louisville told me 'AI is just a fad, don't worry about it.' Fast forward to last month and they laid off 40 people in our department and replaced them with an automated system that processes invoices in seconds. I saw the writing on the wall and got myself into a Python bootcamp, so I was the one who got promoted to oversee the system instead. Anyone else have a boss who brushed off AI and paid for it later?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew14d ago

Honestly feel this so hard. My old boss at the insurance firm I worked for literally told me I was being dramatic when I brought up automation. Then they cut the whole claims intake team, including a woman who had been there 20 years and was two years from retirement. It was rough to watch. People act like it's just a hype cycle but the numbers don't lie when you see actual jobs disappear. Glad you got ahead of it, that takes guts.

robert65914d ago

And that woman getting cut two years from retirement is the part people gloss over. It's easy to call it a hype cycle until you're the one with no golden parachute left.

nancyjones14d ago

Hmm, I don't know if I buy that it's that serious. A lot of managers say stuff like that and sometimes they're right, you know? Data entry jobs have been getting automated for decades before AI was even a buzzword. Spreadsheets did it in the 90s. Feels like people just like to act shocked every time something changes. Maybe your old boss was just being realistic about the hype cycle.