AI is ushering in an era of mass toe-treading at work

Some workplaces are more territorial than others. In newsrooms, for example, most reporters guard their own “beats” jealously and give toe-treaders short shrift. I suspect we are a special case, but even so, the majority of organisations have a pretty clear idea of who is responsible for what – and who isn’t. But for how much longer?

On-the-ground reports from a range of workplaces suggest the traditional boundaries of many occupations are beginning to weaken as people use AI to perform elements of one another’s jobs. For the most part, this isn’t because managers have redesigned workflows and responsibilities. Instead, this mass turf-trampling is happening messily and organically – to the benefit of some and the detriment of others.