"Firing 1,000 Employees While Facing 'Workslop'... Solutions for Organizational Management in the AI Era"

As companies enhance efficiency through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), they are also seeking changes in how their organizations operate.

On May 11, cloud security and infrastructure services company Cloudflare announced in an internal email to its global workforce that it will be laying off more than 1,100 employees. The company cited the increased use of AI in internal work as the background for the layoffs. All departments—including engineering, human resources, finance, and marketing—run thousands of AI agent (assistant) sessions daily to carry out their work, necessitating a reconfiguration of teams and roles. Cloudflare stated, "Over the past three months, internal AI usage has increased by more than 600%," and explained, "We need to redesign our organizational operations for the era of AI agents."

More companies are now closely examining candidates' ability to use AI during the hiring process. Recently, Google has been piloting a recruitment process for software developers that allows candidates to use AI tools. To pass the interview, candidates must use AI tools in the code comprehension assessment to read existing code databases and identify bugs. Google believes this procedure better reflects the generative AI era workflow of "human-led, AI-assisted" work. Since last October, Meta has also replaced one of its two traditional coding interviews with a test. Candidates take a 60-minute exam in a dedicated coding environment equipped with AI assistants. Startups such as Canva and Cognition have also introduced AI-driven recruitment processes.

However, some warn that a culture of maximizing AI use within organizations without separate guidelines or support may lead to 'workslop.' Workslop refers to a situation where inefficiency arises because employees must interpret and revise the incomplete outputs generated by AI. In fact, a study by Jeff Hancock at Stanford University found that 40% of 1,150 office workers in the United States experienced work errors caused by AI within a month, and spent an average of 3.4 hours resolving them. For an organization of 10,000 people, productivity losses from such errors amount to USD 8.19 million.

While it is important to increase employees' use of AI, there is also a growing analysis that policies and recommendations on optimal AI utilization and norms should be established. It is necessary to provide guidelines so that AI can be used in ways that align with the organization's strategy, values, and vision. Yongjin Kim, Professor of Business Administration at Sogang University, remarked, "While people think AI increases work efficiency, in many cases, the faster AI handles tasks, the more work is shifted onto humans." He advised, "We must clarify the process for reviewing AI results and design the organization’s operations so that AI enhances employees' expertise."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.