Human resources software company Lattice learned firsthand that employees aren't yet ready to work alongside AI colleagues.
The tech unicorn, founded by Sam Altman's brother Jack Altman and valued at $3 billion in 2022, announced this week that it had “made history” by giving so-called “digital workers” employee records that will be integrated into organizational charts so that human colleagues can see the AI's role in the workplace. After a flurry of online backlash, the company announced it would not pursue the project further just three days after it was first announced.
“This innovation has sparked much discussion and questions that still don't have clear answers,” CEO Sarah Franklin said in a statement. luck“While we look forward to continuing to work with our customers on the responsible use of AI, we will not be adding any more Digital Workers to our products.”
Lattice's announcement is part of a larger effort by the company to integrate AI into the workplace in a “responsible” way, which ostensibly means treating the technology like a human employee: training, onboarding, and even assigning managers.
“This marks the beginning of a new journey for Lattice to take the idea of the 'AI employee' from concept to reality and advance organizations in the responsible hiring of digital workers,” Franklin said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday.
Lattice has grown rapidly thanks to pandemic-era remote work and a tough labor market that has forced companies to grapple with unconventional hiring and employee support practices. But the talent-focused company's announcement struck a nerve with its LinkedIn followers, who expressed shock at Franklin's announcement and concern about the future of AI integration in the workplace.
“As someone building an AI company, this strategy and messaging misses the mark badly,” Sawyer Midrea, chief of staff at AI sales platform Aomni, wrote in response to Franklin's post. “Treating AI agents as employees devalues the humanity of actual workers. Even worse, it implies viewing humans merely as 'resources' to be optimized and compared to machines.”
There has already been growing anxiety about AI's role in the workplace, especially as its use proliferates across industries. A March 2023 Goldman Sachs report said AI could eliminate or reduce up to 300 million jobs in the U.S. and Europe, and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee predicted that 50% of human workers will be replaced by AI by 2027. The predictions have hit workers hard, with consulting service PWC revealing in 2022 that one-third of employees said they were worried their jobs would be replaced by technology.
Lattice's own shift to AI may not have allayed those fears: The company's announcement to hire AI employees responsibly comes a year after it laid off 15% of its workforce, or more than 100 people, in January 2023 due to a hiring and spending slowdown.
Will AI really replace us?
Early ripples of AI technology in the workplace are already starting to spread, but maybe not in the way anxious employees initially expected. Intuit will lay off 1,800 employees as part of a strategic shift to invest in generative AI, but the layoffs are not related to cost-cutting, its CEO said in an internal memo. The financial software company said it would instead rehire roughly the same number of employees who are better suited for the roles. Intuit said about 1,000 of the let go employees failed to meet performance expectations.
Tech industry leaders don't believe the layoffs are a harbinger of a wave of AI-led job-disposal. “I've spoken to a lot of CEOs, and it's clear to me very quickly that they're not thinking about AI replacing humans. I can say that with full authority,” said Ronnie Sheth, CEO of consulting firm Sennen Group. luck.
While the technology may eventually replace some assembly line jobs, administrative tasks, and analytical roles (possibly resulting in some employee layoffs), responsibilities like branding and management control are not yet threatened. CEOs are more interested in building and maintaining a strong company culture than the quantifiable benefits that AI can bring, Sheth said. Moreover, the introduction of AI in the workplace doesn't mean employees can't find meaningful work opportunities elsewhere, Sheth argued.
“I think there's a balance between rebalancing the workforce and creating policies that ensure AI is used for the benefit of humanity,” she said, “and not taking away from people's livelihoods.”