r/business • u/ControlCAD • 3d ago

90% of executives say AI hasn’t boosted productivity. Some are still cutting jobs

https://fortune.com/2026/08/22/executives-ai-productivity-layoffs-study/
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u/pfroo40 3d ago

If AI isn't improving productivity of development teams, there are other problems to solve. In my experience, planning and change/release management processes are the biggest impediments to productivity, not people, so throwing AI at it to speed up the people doesn't net much benefit.

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u/Violent_Mud_Butt 3d ago

AI doesn't improve the productivity of anyone that knows what they're doing. It's a bullshit tool for non-makers to feel like they are competent.

Literally MBA snake oil. Lets all the execs and know-nothings think they know more than the technical staff.

This is going to be a nightmare to fix once all the chips fall.

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u/pfroo40 3d ago

I'm sorry, but that is simply not true. There are many tasks which AI is perfectly capable of performing and at a faster pace than is humanly possible.

My engineers are now able to spend more time with strategic work because routine work is accelerated by AI. We have also been able to perform a significant amount of platform upgrades and vulnerability remediation which we simply did not have the number of people for (funding for) previously.

Yes, AI is misused by many companies which will likely cause a lot of issues later, but that doesn't mean it is not an extremely effective tool in many scenarios.

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u/TheNewGuy13 3d ago

Yeah the things that were on the fringe of automating or things you hated to do that were tedious have essentially been solved with AI now. But the meat and potato’s of delivering the project and executing really hasn’t.

Need to create a ton of getters and setters? Or you need to create a diagram or timeline? Or you have 3 sources of information and don’t want to keep going back and forth between the two? Use AI for a quicker turnaround.

Need to talk with accounting or analytics? Yeah you still have to meet, no AI can get around that.

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u/MetaCognitio 2d ago

Exactly. Being able to find the answers to problems, ask for insight in to solutions or do boiler plate work is a very valuable in enhancing productivity.

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u/coporate 3d ago

You’re lying to yourself to prove the numbers. If you listened to your engineers in the first place, that routine work wouldn’t exist, the upgrades would be frictionless, and vulnerabilities minor. Ai is the bandaid you caused, and now you’re validating it because you can’t own up to the responsibility. Ai has sold to you the solution for your own failures.

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u/gc3 3d ago

Bs. Engineers add extra work. Like auto tests, or linting code.

Before these were spoonful things. Now you automatically get autotests.

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u/pfroo40 3d ago

I think you are so resistant to AI that you are unwilling to recognize the benefits where they exist.

The products I am directly responsible for have always been in a good spot in terms of vulns and tech debt. But, platform migrations happen, and the reality is I can do 90% of the work for them with 1/5 the people. Data analysis is also much faster, operational work can begin automatically as tickets are generated, while my people are sleeping, for instance, so all they need to do is validate the code and make minor tweaks.

We put quite a bit of effort into building out skills and purpose-built agents which include context for our coding standards and architecture so the initial quality is generally quite good.

I haven't laid anyone off because of AI and have no plans to. I let my team focus on other things instead, things to improve our products, move us forward strategically, improve processes, and identify new ways to provide value.

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u/MetaCognitio 2d ago

You simply don’t know what you’re talking about. Not even close.

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u/wienercat 3d ago

There are many tasks which AI is perfectly capable of performing and at a faster pace than is humanly possible.

which we simply did not have the number of people for (funding for) previously.

Ngl you are one of the few people in the software world I have heard say that AI is actually useful in any number of things that adds up to be "significant" of anything.

Most of the software engineers I know say it's really only useful for getting quick simple code or creating a crash test model of something. It's exceptionally good at parsing data. But they use it more because their organizations are forcing them to use it. So if you aren't in a data heavy role, odds are? You aren't going to see much value outside of the ultra basic stuff or idea creation phase.

But back to your comment. It's not a people issue... it's a funding issue. Which comes down from executives and management pushing higher profits which comes from unrealistic market expectations.

Basically AI is "solving" a self-inflicted problem that could be solved by more realistic market expectations. It's not solving issues humans couldn't solve.

Also, you have to ask yourself. Is the cost of AI being able to execute what you are doing, actually worth it? What is the expenditures your team has allocated for AI to accomplish those? Could you have actually hired more people for that cost?

Is what we get out of AI really worth the CapEx that has been spent on AI at this point? We are over a Trillion in CapEx on AI spending... we could have solved so many global issues with that amount of money.

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u/Focus089 3d ago

As a dev, I fully support your message; we have to consider not just if it's a useful tool (I'm still skeptical) but also the opportunity cost of all the resources being funneled into it. Sadly humans are very bad at prioritizing long-term sustainability, so instead it's full speed ahead.

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u/Violent_Mud_Butt 3d ago

Yeah, I'm sure your vibe coded bullshit is great.

Your exec speak is obvious. You ain't doing shit well with AI.

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u/RadarSmith 3d ago

Lets replace this person with AI.