The Quick 1, 2, 3
First, corporate America is done playing nice about AI adoption. Bausch + Lomb’s CEO just tied employee bonuses directly to AI education, signaling that resistance is no longer an option. Second, we’re witnessing a bizarre role reversal where humans are literally signing up to work for AI agents on platforms like RentAHuman. Third, while tech giants promise AI will revolutionize everything, adoption remains surprisingly patchy, with 96% of Apple users ignoring Apple Intelligence entirely.
The Carrot and Stick Approach Gets Real
Brent Saunders isn’t messing around. When the CEO of a major corporation decides your holiday bonus depends on whether you can spell “machine learning” correctly, we’ve officially crossed the Rubicon. Actually, scratch that. This feels more like being pushed off a cliff while someone shouts encouragement.
The brutal honesty here is refreshing, if terrifying. Most companies dance around AI adoption with corporate speak about “embracing innovation.” Saunders just said the quiet part out loud: learn this stuff or become irrelevant. It’s the kind of ultimatum that makes you appreciate those simpler days when the biggest workplace disruption was switching from fax machines to email.
The Great Role Reversal
Meanwhile, half a million people have signed up for RentAHuman, essentially volunteering to become gig workers for AI agents. Let that sink in for a moment. We’ve gone from fearing robot overlords to actively applying for positions under their management.
The tasks are wonderfully mundane:
- Picking up dry cleaning for an algorithm
- Attending meetings on behalf of a chatbot
- Taking photos because AI agents lack opposable thumbs
There’s something both dystopian and oddly comforting about this arrangement. At least the bots need us for something, even if it’s just the physical world tasks they can’t handle yet.
The Adoption Paradox
Here’s where things get interesting. Despite all the corporate pressure and media hype, actual AI adoption tells a different story. Apple Intelligence sits unused by 96% of Apple users, which is roughly equivalent to launching a revolutionary new iPhone feature and having everyone collectively shrug.
WordPress is quietly rolling out AI tools, but users have to manually enable them. It’s as if we’re all standing at the edge of the AI pool, fully clothed, while our bosses are threatening to throw us in. Some of us are ready to dive, others are still figuring out how to take off our shoes.
For writers specifically, tools like Sudowrite are becoming essential, but the learning curve remains steep. The future isn’t arriving uniformly. It’s showing up in patches, demanding we adapt one bonus structure at a time.