Honestly, the most impactful thing I've seen AI do for any workplace is serve as the ultimate excuse for whatever pet thing someone's wanted to do, that can't stand on its own merits, and what they really need is a solid excuse.

Rewrite that old crunchy system that has had 0 incidents in the last year and is also largely "done" (not a lot of new requirements coming in, pretty settled code/architecture)? It's actually one of our most stable systems. But someone who doesn't even write code here thinks the code is yucky! But that doesn't convince the engineers who are on-call for it to replace it for almost no reason. Well guess what. We can do it now, _because AI!!!_ (cue exactly what you think happens next happening next)

Need to lay off 10% of staff because you think the workers are getting too good of a deal? AI.

Need to convince your workers to go faster, but EMs tell you you can't just crack the whip? AI mandates / token spend mandates!

Didn't like code reviews and people nitpicking your designs? Sorry, code reviews are canceled, because of AI.

Don't like meetings or working in a team? Well now everyone is a team of 1, because of AI. Better set up some "teams" full of teams of 1, call them "AI-first" teams, and wait what do you mean they're on vacation and the service is down?

Etc. And they don't even care that these things result in the exact negative outcomes that are why you didn't do them before you had the excuse. You're happy that YOUR thing finally got done despite all the whiners and detractors. And of course, it turns out that businesses can withstand an absurd amount of dysfunction without really feeling it. So it just happens. Maybe some people leave. You hire people who just left their last place for doing the thing you just did and now maybe they spend a bit of time here. And the game of musical chairs, petty monarchies, and degenerate capitalism continues a bit longer.

Big props to the people who managed to invent and sell an excuse machine though. Turns out that's what everyone actually wanted.

> Need to lay off 10% of staff because you think the workers are getting too good of a deal? AI.

I think we're seeing a ton of that right now, and it's not slowing down any time soon it seems.