We keep hearing, mainly from AI CEOs, how human workers are done and that we’re just 6-12 months away from AI rendering entire industries obsolete. But that’s normal and expected; they have to push that narrative to justify billions invested in AI infrastructure.
All that AI-doom-talk is mostly grounded in the abstract concept of what might be in the future. It’s rarely targeted at anyone in particular, but rather predicts the general state the world might be in soon. That is, until Lenovo showed up with an ad for the concept of its AI Work Companion, powered by its AI assistant, Qira.
Lenovo’s ad feels like a direct jab at humanity. It’s directed in such a way that it shows humans not only as inferior to AI, but also as outright incapable of doing any meaningful work and being clueless about what happens right in front of them.
The ad starts with Jeff, an office worker, asking Qira to write a report that he had forgotten he was supposed to prepare. All the guy has to do is draw a sketch, and Qira turns it into an actual report. This in itself isn’t very controversial. Something like that has happened to all of us; nothing inherently wrong with that. I’m not going to sit here and pretend none of us would do something like that if we actually had confidence in AI’s ability to one-shot a crucial company report.
But the next scene is what really hits the mark here. In this part, Jeff’s colleague comes in and asks about the company’s Q1 budget. Jeff, being as hard-working as he is, has no idea about the budget. This is where Qira comes in and perfectly recites all the details that Jeff was supposed to say.
The craziest part is that the colleague then thanks Jeff for the update, completely ignoring the fact that he received the answer from an AI instead. It feels like a scene from an RPG game when you enter a cutscene with your ridiculous armor, while others are dressed normally, and nobody notices it. This scene is actually unfair to Qira, because Jeff takes all the credit for just sitting there.
They then head to a meeting where Qira once again does everything for them. Not a single productive action was performed by a human in the entire ad.
The ad concludes at the end of this exhausting work day, with Jeff conveniently saying, “Couldn’t have done it without you today, now, partner.” Well, you don’t say...
I genuinely believe Lenovo’s intention was simply to showcase the usefulness of its new AI assistant, not to insult the human race. However, the execution was poor, and it only highlighted the incompetence of the office workers. Couldn’t they make the humans do at least something instead of being professional observers?
If that’s how companies envision employees to act, what’s even the point of having employees? No wonder massive layoffs are happening left and right. If I were a CEO of a major company, I wouldn’t want to keep someone like Jeff on my payroll either. I would just buy another Qira and have the AI assistants do all the work together.
But back to the real world, and AI doesn’t exactly do everything perfectly for you the way it does for Jeff. I challenge you to submit an AI-generated report to your boss and see their reaction. AI still isn’t capable of flawlessly executing every task without making a single error, while you sit back, relax, and draw doodles. Just ask Amazon or Microsoft.
As for Lenovo’s ad, neither the actual state of things nor the perceived message works in its favor. If you look at it from a practical point of view, the ad promises something an AI assistant can’t reliably deliver. And if you look at the message, it promises to turn the workforce into a bunch of passive coffee drinkers.
Now, this is just an ad for a Lenovo concept, and Lenovo is known for having creative concepts, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. But it still opens a lot of questions about how the tech industry envisions the future of work.
I understand companies need to make these kinds of statements to keep the stock price up and attract more investment. But there has to be a better way to do it than openly dismissing the very people you expect to actually use your product.