Posted on 08/03/2026 3:15:27 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
I served as the chief information officer of the athletic apparel company Lululemon for eight years. Deploying new technologies, artificial intelligence included, was part of the job. But when I left, my successor was handed a new title: chief A.I. and technology officer.
I winced — not about the person but about the pattern. Companies these days are quick to stick “A.I.” in news releases, in earnings calls, in product names, in job postings and in titles at the top of their organizations. The real question is what strategy sits behind the abbreviation. A title costs nothing, but it doesn’t produce anything, either.
And that’s a problem. When companies mistake an announcement for a strategy, they spend real money — and sometimes cut real jobs — chasing a future that isn’t actually being built. And in doing so, they’re persuading Americans to reject a powerful innovation that could do so much good for all of us.
I have spent 30 years in technology, and like many of my peers, I used the newest tools to solve hard problems. In the internet era, my colleagues and I built a tool that let every customer check the inventory in each of Nordstrom’s stores. It increased sales significantly. When I was at Lululemon, we found a way to use A.I. to help executives better predict which products would sell in which stores. It took time, lots of people and big budgets.
Then ChatGPT arrived. This new technology was easy to understand for most nontechnologists — a chief executive, board member or investor — a healthy portion of whom began demanding their organizations immediately embed the technology throughout their operations. A.I. companies started popping up like food trucks at a street fair.
These A.I. companies arrived armed with demonstrations, and the demos were amazing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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i can’t read the whole article.
What’s the author’s main point?
“the demos were amazing”
The standing joke during my career was “They gave good demo.”
I think the point is that companies are hollowing out their middles to profit.
Proper AI usage adds to your job, not eliminate your job.
Thanks.
AI could be properly used to get rid of jobs at some point—but senior management is not that smart—yet—so it usually turns into a disaster.
The whole AI industry is in shake out mode. It will take a decade or so before it starts to make real sense.
Then (imho) massive white collar jobs will be cut—without the company harming operations.
I tried reading it but I got bored before getting to the author’s point.
40 years a guy came through with a new reporting system. The demo was amazing for retrieving data. That is what it was, a data base. I was skeptical because I did not see the levels of security I knew we would need for all the various types of information.but management bought it.
Ten years and millions of dollars later the system was scrapped and replaced iwth an Oracle product. That still had some problems but worked. What a fiasco.
In my experience, senior management isn’t that smart, ever. What they usually are, is an impediment to the people under them who actually do useful work.
Fair point—unfortunately (with rare exceptions) that was also my experience throughout my career.
Go to the top of my homepage and follow the instructions: https://freerepublic.com/~epluribusunum/index
I have an MBA and back in the “old days” they taught us how to be a good manager—and how and why so many managers are awful.
For some reason when the graduates got into the real world most managed to forget what they were taught.
Short version is “don’t be a jerk” to anyone ever.
FTA: “I have spent 30 years in technology…”
According to the “new technologists”, she has already exposed herself and her argument as “old school thinking” that only deserves to be pushed out the door. I think she has a great point about not hitching your corporate wagon to every new & shiny fad that’s come out. As already illustrated by experienced posters in the thread from the IT space, there are many sad stories out there of bad applications, immature technology, and poor results.
The standing joke during my career was “They gave good demo.”
Hah!
Reminds me of those new movie trailers, the ones that try to get you interested in the full length movie. Sometimes, all of the best, interesting stuff is in the trailer, and the rest of the movie is, well, not.
PG&E undertook an Oracle project to revamp its Customer Care & Billing System back in the late 90s. Roll-out was 2000 - 2005 and was a complete disaster. I think they spent over $100 million on it and got nothing.
They’ve continued to depend on their original COBOL system...until about 18 months ago when they asked the California PUC to approve an upgrade of their billing system for … $761.3 million. Yep, $761.3M for a billing system! Almost a BILLION dollars. I’m sure it will work fine this time.
Thank you.
Yeah coders are pulling a fast onw on people..the beautiful part about AI is that you dont need software developers anymore. Use the tools you have and let ai help you. Boom. Done
When I say this, Im not being an absolutist on the issue because it is inevitable that some jobs cannot be adapted to AI and exist.
However, properly done because there is no limit to work that can be done, AI should be adding work that can be done to every position. Jobs themselves dont need to disappear. Companies are, imv, cutting the amount work they could do by eliminating workers and letting AI do it all.
I spent some time at the library recently and found a reading area near the... Periodicals! I thought they were just the cover on the shelf, and I had to ask for the actual magazine.. but no - magazines are now about 20 pages.
So read all of them. And what I saw made me sad. EVERY ARTICLE is about AI.
Every magazine. Time, forbes, modern psychology, parents, fine gardening (which really gets me because I worked at the Taunton Press for 3 years) each and every bit was taking about AI. I imagine it isn’t just the topic of this month because AI has been in play for a be pretty long time at this point
That is true of more than computers/AI. Hitler spent the second half of WW2 railing against the Luftwaffe, accusing it of fraud because of its habit of putting on dog and pony shows demonstrating wonder weapons that never reached even the prototype stage.
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