A couple of weeks ago, in frustrated reaction to two CEOs (first from Shopify, then Duolingo) who published memos mandating the use of AI in their companies (“for productivity”), I wrote on Mastodon:

I don’t understand this need to say “we’re gonna use AI to be more productive.”

Imagine someone putting out press releases that “we’re gonna use computers to be more productive.” Or “cars.” Or “electricity.”

The only reason to announce this is for the attention and to boost their stock price, because “AI.”

Why must companies be so insufferable? Use the tools and shut up about it already!

I thought I’d write something here about this trend, but I’m glad I didn’t, because Anil Dash nailed it with exactly the right comparison: ”AI-first” is the new Return To Office.

Dash asks:

[…] did your boss ever have to send you a memo demanding that you use a smartphone? Was there a performance review requiring you to use Slack? I’m actually old enough that I was at different workplaces when they started using spreadsheets and email and the web, and I can tell you, they absolutely didn’t have to drive adoption by making people fill out paperwork about how they were definitely using the cool new technology. Isn’t that interesting?

He further wonders:

How did we get here? What can we do? Maybe it starts by trying to just… be normal about technology.

His conclusion echoes mine:

But I don’t think the audience for these memos is really the people who work at these companies. I think the audience is the other CEOs and investors and VCs in the industry, just as it was for the other fads of the last few years. And I expect that AI will indeed be part of how we evaluate performance in the future, but mostly in that the way CEOs communicate to their teams about technologies like AI will be part of how we all evaluate their performance as leaders.