Automation has a suspicious habit of becoming another thing to manage.
You automate the workflow.
Then you monitor the automation. Then troubleshoot the automation. Then explain the automation. Then build a dashboard for the automation. Then attend a meeting about the automation.
At this point, the automation has not saved time.
It has developed a small administrative ecosystem and started charging rent.
AI needs a better standard.
It should reduce load, not relocate it.
It should create clarity, not more tabs.
It should make work more humane, not just more measurable.
This is the test I keep coming back to:
Did this actually make life lighter for the humans involved?
Can we make this a closed loop?
I am not saying that is easy. But if we cannot, we may have optimized the wrong thing very efficiently.
Checking and rechecking for self-reinforcing systems is where the magic really starts to happen.