More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Open offices are loud and not great for productivity. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy . I think a lot about productivity.

The future of AI and jobs will be so much weirder than you think. This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Last year, Steve Yegge started "suddenly getting pounded by nap attacks in the middle of the day." Without fail, Yegge--a programmer and tech blogger--would "hit a wall, fall over, and sleep for 90 minutes," he told me. Like many developers, Yegge no longer writes code by hand; instead, he manages a legion of bots to do that for him.

Christopher Marquis is a professor at the University of Cambridge and the author of The Profiteers. In 1930, in the depths of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes wrote a short essay called . It is often remembered for one striking prediction: by 2030, people in wealthy countries might only need to work about 15 hours a week. What Keynes imagined was a society advanced enough to solve what he called the "economic problem" of basic material provision. If technology kept improving, and societies kept growing richer, then fewer hours of human labor would be needed to produce the necessities and comforts of life.

For some, AI can help remove the drudgery from daily work. For many others, though, AI is not an assistant. For some, AI can help remove the drudgery from daily work. For many others, though, AI is not an assistant. Forget the AI job apocalypse.

WiseTech's headquarters in Sydney, where staff fear many jobs will be lost to AI. WiseTech's headquarters in Sydney, where staff fear many jobs will be lost to AI. 'Your craft is obsolete': WiseTech staff in limbo as AI touted as better than humans Staff at WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in AI, with workers criticising the wait as stressful and "ridiculous". The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told investors an AI agent could learn a human's job in just 15 minutes, according to the Australian Financial Review. The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February that it would lay off almost 30% of its workforce across 40 countries, with 2,000 of the 7,000 jobs set to go over the next 18 months. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Some areas would be hit harder than others, with product and development and customer service teams expected to be reduced by up to 50%, the chief executive, Zubin Appoo, told an investor briefing in February. "The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over," Appoo said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Discover MSI's 2026 AI-powered laptops, including the Prestige 16 Flip AI+, Stealth 16 AI+, and Raider 16 MAX HX - designed for productivity, portability, and high-performance gaming. CES 2026 highlighted a major shift in computing: AI-powered PCs designed for everyday users. These new AI laptops and AI PCs combine dedicated AI acceleration, powerful GPUs, and modern processors to support everything from productivity to gaming. Companies like MSI are now building AI capabilities directly into their latest laptops, making advanced features like AI-assisted productivity, content creation, and gaming performance available across multiple device categories.

'Workslop' is an unintended consequence of the AI boom. 'Workslop' is an unintended consequence of the AI boom. Bosses say AI boosts productivity - workers say they're drowning in'workslop' Ken, a copywriter for a large, Miami-based cybersecurity firm, used to enjoy his job. But then the "workslop" started piling up. Workslop is an unintended consequence of the AI boom.

Corporate employees said Amazon's race to roll out AI is leading to surveillance, slop and'more work for everyone'. When Dina, a software developer based in New York, joined Amazon two years ago, her job was to write code. The internal AI tool she's expected to use, called Kiro, frequently hallucinates and generates flawed code, she says. Then she has to dig through and correct the sloppy code it creates, or just revert all changes and start again. She says it feels like "trying to AI my way out of a problem that AI caused".

CEO Jack Dorsey being interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on 19 November 2015. CEO Jack Dorsey being interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on 19 November 2015. Current and former Block workers say AI can't do their jobs after Jack Dorsey's mass layoffs: 'You can't really AI that' The CEO said he cut the company's workforce by 4,000 people - almost in half - because of gains in AI productivity M ark remembers the first time he wondered whether he was teaching Block's AI tools how to do his job - and maybe even replace him. He was at his fintech company's extravagant anniversary party last September. As executives led a presentation on the productivity benefits of a new internal AI tool, Mark, who worked in the product department, discussed his worries with colleagues. While he wasn't sure what would happen in a few years, he told a co-worker sitting next to him that for now, there was no way the technology was so advanced that it could move the business forward without employees like him to help drive vision and strategy.

'The advent of AI is drawing the world's attention to the extreme imbalance of power between employers and their employees.' 'The advent of AI is drawing the world's attention to the extreme imbalance of power between employers and their employees.' New technology has workers spooked, but experts say it's creating an opening for a resurgence in worker power In 2026, it's a scary time to work for a living. Gone are the days of quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union-organizing battles that began the decade and signaled that perhaps worker power was on the rise again in the US. Instead, much of that momentum is being crowded out of our minds by anxieties: a worsening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability, and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace.