Meta has scaled back planned job cuts and wider deployment of AI agents after employees spent increasing time correcting technical and security errors, the Guardian reported on 13 October. LinkedIn posts from employees also indicate that Meta is expanding its managerial ranks after cutting middle-management roles during a 2023 efficiency push.
At Walmart, store and warehouse workers reported unreasonable performance expectations, faulty schedules and false alerts from AI tools used to assign tasks and monitor work. An Atlanta Federal Reserve working paper found that 90% of executives said their companies’ AI efforts had yet to produce productivity gains.
In an Ernst & Young survey, 36% of senior AI executives working at companies with annual revenue of at least $1bn said an AI incident had caused operational disruption, brand damage, financial damage or data loss. Palantir, Booz Allen Hamilton and Nvidia have restricted employees’ AI use over concerns about sharing company data with AI providers.
Microsoft’s chief strategy and transformation officer, Kathleen Hogan, wrote that adding agents to a flawed process leaves its underlying problems intact. In a Houston case, a jury ordered 3M to pay $61.5m to 24 homeowners. A company expert had used ChatGPT while preparing his report, though his counsel said it had not produced his opinions.
