AI Isn't Coming for Your Job, but Your Boss Might Be
The truth behind the AI hype cycle. Why executives love it, workers fear it, and most of us misunderstand what it’s really doing to jobs.
Artificial Intelligence, once buried in the backend of fraud detection systems or quietly nudging your streaming recommendations, now has a user interface and a personality. Suddenly, it feels less like infrastructure and more like a colleague who works faster, never sleeps, and somehow still gets things slightly wrong.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney have made AI feel real to the average person. It’s one thing to hear about neural networks in academic papers, quite another when your boss asks if you’ve tried using one to write your quarterly report. Cue the media storm, breathless op-eds, and talent managers wondering aloud if machines might replace creatives, coders, and, somewhat optimistically, consultants.
But let’s take a breath. Because while AI is genuinely impressive, its current rise is riding shotgun with something more familiar: narrative. Behind the dashboards and demo reels lies a corporate strategy powered by perception. The AI boom is real, but it's also a well-timed excuse. And just ambiguous enough to dodge deeper scrutiny.
AI Is Not New, It’s Just More Visible Now
Artificial Intelligence is not some sci-fi marvel that crashed into the business world in 2023. It has been here for years, quietly humming along in back-end systems and enterprise tools, doing the digital equivalent of grunt work. Companies have used AI in various forms to streamline operations, process data, and make decisions faster and cheaper. It just wasn’t labeled as “intelligent” because it didn’t feel all that glamorous.
Banks have relied on machine learning to detect fraudulent behavior by identifying anomalous patterns in transaction data. Netflix’s ability to suggest that you might enjoy another true crime documentary is the result of algorithmic models trained on behavioral signals and viewing habits. Even Robotic Process Automation, which has been reducing repetitive office work since the mid-2010s, is essentially AI. None of this is new. It just wasn’t newsworthy.
So what changed? Access. With tools like ChatGPT, the interface is now personal, and conversational. Anyone with a browser can now prompt a machine to generate essays, write code, or draft emails. It looks like magic, even if it isn’t. And when a tool that once belonged to data scientists suddenly appears capable of writing a better memo than your manager, there’s a psychological shift.
This is the first time AI has felt close. Not just close to the workplace, but close to identity, creativity, and control. It is no longer “their” tool behind the scenes. It’s our tool now. The fear that follows is about visibility. We’re not reacting to what AI can do. We’re reacting to the fact that we can finally see it doing it.
The Layoff Lie: AI as a Convenient Scapegoat
Over the past two years, as companies trimmed headcounts, a familiar justification started appearing in statements: “AI efficiencies,” “AI-led transformation,” “operational realignment due to emerging technologies.” In other words, the robot made us do it.
But the truth is less sophisticated. These layoffs were coming, AI or not. Many of the affected companies had overhired during the pandemic, banking on continued demand and cheap capital. Growth targets were inflated and entire teams were built around “strategic bets” that flopped.
Rather than owning up to missteps, some executives reached for the most convenient tool available: AI. Framing a layoff as a forward-looking AI initiative makes the move sound visionary rather than reactionary. It's narrative control.
By leaning on AI as the rationale, leadership shifts the focus away from poor decision-making and toward “innovation.” Shareholders hear “efficiency.” Analysts hear “cost optimization.” The public hears “the future.” Everyone moves on. Until, of course, the cracks show.
Some of the same companies now find themselves rehiring laid-off employees. It turns out that AI does not know where the company’s skeletons are buried. It doesn’t remember why a process exists, or who to talk to when a deal hits a snag. It certainly doesn’t handle client relationships with nuance or read the political undercurrents of a WhatsApp group.
AI can assist. It can accelerate. But it is not a wholesale replacement for human infrastructure. At least, not yet. For now, it remains a useful story to tell when the real one doesn’t look quite as flattering.
AI Will Change Work, Just Not the Way You Think
AI will change how we work. But it won’t do it with the clean sweep that some headlines promise or some doomsday pundits predict. As with every major wave of technology, the transformation will come through tasks, not wholesale job erasure.
Historically, disruption meant evolution. Spreadsheets didn’t eliminate finance departments. They eliminated redundant calculations and made room for analysis. Email didn’t kill communication. It replaced some of it and flooded us with more of it. Similarly, AI is more likely to reorganize the job description, adding complexity in one area while shaving it off in another.
Today, we already see AI taking the first swing at drafts, outlines, code snippets, and concept art. Developers use it to scaffold repetitive code. Writers use it to get past blank pages. Designers tap it for early iterations. These tools save time, sure, but they also shift the center of gravity of the work. Less starting from scratch, more curating, revising, and questioning what the model produced.
Jobs are rarely just mechanical execution. They involve judgment, negotiation, context, and creative friction. And so, the likely outcome is not disappearance, but redefinition. AI might write the first 40 percent. But the next 60 percent? That’s you.
What we’re seeing isn’t mass replacement. It’s meta-work: tasks about tasks. Prompt writing. Quality control. AI auditing. Not fewer jobs. Just different ones.
The Real Motivation: Shareholder Value, Not Innovation
If AI isn’t actually replacing jobs at scale, and if it’s not as novel as it’s being pitched, then why are we surrounded by AI town halls, strategic rebrands, and LinkedIn posts claiming “AI-first transformation”? The answer is simple. It’s not about innovation. It’s about shareholder value.
Artificial Intelligence is a narrative asset. Boards want to hear that companies are “leveraging AI.” Venture capitalists expect AI in every pitch deck, regardless of whether the product actually needs it. Journalists need AI stories to fill a near-insatiable content cycle. And public companies? They’ve discovered that casually name-dropping AI during earnings calls can reliably boost stock prices in the short term. No working model required.
A 2023 McKinsey report projected that AI could contribute $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually. That number sounds exciting, and it is, but it represents potential. Realising that value depends on difficult, time-consuming work: integrating AI meaningfully into business operations, retraining staff, updating infrastructure, and building systems that are accountable and explainable.
Most of that hasn't happened yet.
What has happened is this: leaders overpromise AI's impact to secure investor confidence, use AI as a reason to trim headcount or restructure, and defer the complexity of actual implementation to the next leadership cycle. That’s not transformation.
Artificial Intelligence has become corporate shorthand for “We’re doing something exciting. Please don’t look too closely.”
We’ve seen it with “digital transformation,” “cloud-first strategies,” and “blockchain for business.” AI just happens to be the current favourite. Not because it’s always useful, but because it sells the future.
The real challenge with AI isn’t the technology itself. It’s the stories we’re being told about it. Yes, AI is powerful. Yes, it will change how we work. But no, it is not a force of nature sweeping uncontrollably through the job market. The loudest claims often come from those who benefit most from framing AI as either a miracle or a menace. That should make us pause.
The danger isn’t that AI replaces the workforce overnight. The danger is that we use the idea of replacement to justify poorly planned decisions, panic hiring freezes, or shortsighted restructuring. That kind of reaction doesn’t build a smarter future.
We need to shift the conversation. Ask who gains from the narrative. Look at how AI is actually being implemented, not just marketed. Push for thoughtful integration that improves how people work.
AI is a tool. Its value depends on how we use it, who we include in that process, and how honestly we communicate its role. Less fear. Less hype. More clarity. That’s the path forward.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we work with clients to identify and scope opportunities for AI adoption in the organisational design. Contact us if you're interested how AI can increase your organisational and human capital effectiveness.