this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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[–] anzo@programming.dev 5 points 1 hour ago

Let's use AI to replace the missing CEOs when we compost billionaires!!!

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 18 points 10 hours ago
[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 24 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Also, most CEOs will suffer no negative consequences for their dumb decisions, and will probably even get multi-million dollar bonuses regardless.

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 9 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Exactly, the vision was flawless, it will all be blamed on the execution. The people who failed to build it will be held accountable though; departments of them…

Fucking awesome system we have here.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

So what has effectively happened? Just... Ruined a bunch of stuff and destabilized a bunch of society and lined the pockets of a few companies?

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 13 hours ago

Also mined a ton of data for.. less than benevolent purposes

[–] darkmogool@feddit.org 12 points 15 hours ago
[–] melfie@lemy.lol 34 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (3 children)

The CEOs are investing in AI to put on airs for investors and inflate their company valuation, often pissing off customers and losing sales in the process. It’s evidently a worthy trade-off to make number go up.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago

Unfortunately, that's their only job, to make the number go up.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 16 hours ago

they want to inflate long enough to get a bonus on thier golden parachute then bounce.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 13 hours ago

in order prolong the illusion longer they layoff constantly to, record profits.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Just keep sucking up power and hardware.

[–] PushButton@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

and water, a lot of it...

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 245 points 1 day ago (23 children)

All this article is showing is that a large number of CEOs are swayed by hype and make poor decisions. What other poor decisions are they making all the time?

I am thoroughly convinced that the MBA is the most useless degree ever because when you look at how large businesses run so poorly, and are run by MBAs.

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago

You are correct. The issue is one of projection. CEOs and MBAs think AI is amazing and can replace everyone because it can replace them. They are the ones replaceable. So they think AI is so amazing and they should use it to replace everyone else.

Folks doing actual work with meaningful output absolutely can and should use AI as a force multipyer where applicable, but they know they're meaningful work can't be fully replaced.

[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 52 points 1 day ago (4 children)

In Japan, engineeing companies are run by the engineers which I think is the better way.

Ill never understand why American companies insist on being led by business majors who know nothing and dont care about the product being built.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Are they? Rakuten is led by a business guru and the products are subpar unless they bought them. Also Japan has a huge deficit of native engineers, so most of the engineers at this kind of companies are Chinese and Indian. Which companies are you thinking about?

[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago

i always thought the car makers and other manufacturers were engineed led. I admit i am no expert in modern Japanese business.

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because the thing that makes American companies make money isn't the production of better products its "business magic" that games stock prices. its been that way for a long time.

[–] Mondez@lemdro.id 1 points 45 minutes ago

Sadly the virtuous circle of profits being put back into research and development seems badly broken in so many business now.

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[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 65 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As I’ve always said, defund MBAs

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 50 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Look I want kids to grow up and be able to pursue any passion they want, but we have to ask serious real world questions here about Austerity and I am starting to think we should entirely cut MBA programs and in general business education.

I know that sounds extreme, but we have to focus on training kids on skills that will actually be productive, useful and lead to new breakthroughs. We clearly need to fund the hard stuff like art, music and theater or we are going to collapse as a society and continue to fall behind more competitive nations because we got distracted by fluff and empty ideologies masquerading as knowledge, MBAs being exhibit A.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

defund it in the universities and turn that resource to STEM which always anemic, unaccrediate them.

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Especially when being one of dual training, IT and business, it's so obvious there's a lot of bullshit.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The purpose of business school MBAs is nothing more than networking. These degrees cost a fortune, and that's exactly the point: to bring opportunists together. I'm almost sure it's next to impossible to fail this degree, because it's not about knowledge at all, but merely about gaining entry into senior management.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 9 points 22 hours ago

Sort of, there are actually smart people who go there too. The kids with connections to the jobs pull smart kids with them and then use them as workhorses and basically claim all the glory from their work. Then you might get poached by someone willing to pay more who is less abusive.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

What other poor decisions are they making all the time?

See also: investment in Theranos.

These people are so easy to fucking scam with buzzwords and the right "look."

[–] cazssiew@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I find it interesting how Sam Altman has the same continuous vocal fry Elizabeth Holmes used to have. It's infuriating how well a cheap impression of gravitas performs with investors.

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[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago

What other poor decisions are they making all the time?

Not resigning.

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[–] YellowFellow@piefed.social 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The article is sort of interesting and I hope people take a gander rather than headline skim to affirm a bias and internally bridge the narrative gap.

The article says the report blames the lack of payoff on lack of implementation rather than on AI tooling itself. That is, companies need to fully integrate with AI because piecemeal isn't working. Quite the opposite of what many people commenting here are assuming the takeaway was.

That means even more bad times ahead for people who wake up every morning and make the world happen and society function. Assuming PwC's advice is taken to heart and job displacement remains the primary motivator rather than force multiplication.

[–] ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Thanks for reminding us to resist giving in to confirmation bias. And thanks for the summary! I'll go read the article now for the full picture

Edit:

Is PwC advising clients not to worry if an AI pilot project fails, and push ahead with a large-scale deployment anyway?

I hope that any cultist CEO that rolls out this crap gets bitten hard by their hubris, that they become an example for the rest

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 21 points 23 hours ago

"AI is doing nothing for us. Quick! Apply more AI!"

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 39 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I tend to be skeptical of the reactionary AI is always slop trend. I'm sympathetic to it because it's a response to the hype machine that knows no prudence. But damn when you say

"Your next move: Build AI foundations. Our work with organisations confirms mounting evidence that isolated, tactical AI projects often don’t deliver measurable value. Tangible returns come from enterprise-scale deployment consistent with company business strategy."

I read this as marketing. What's the evidence you've been gathering? Why do you believe your projects are applicable to all companies? What happens if we invest and it doesn't help like you say it will?

This is like saying the solution to your relationship troubles is having a baby. No... No this is not the solution. Make my smaller projects work and show return and then we talk larger commitments.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 19 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Just trust us bro and give us money. You don't want to be left in the dust do you?

[–] AstralPath@lemmy.ca 10 points 21 hours ago

A summary of what you need to know about the state of "business" in 2026.

[–] vin@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

~40℅ seeing a positive payoff is surprisingly high

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 13 hours ago

40% fired a bunch of stuff who are either working harder or were actually able to leverage llm for some of their work.

AI didn't have to do a good job, it just gave them an excuse to slash people

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 12 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Are they seeing a payoff or just not admitting defeat (yet)?

[–] vin@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Most CEOs say their companies aren’t yet seeing a financial return from investments in AI. Although close to a third (30%) report increased revenue from AI in the last 12 months and a quarter (26%) are seeing lower costs, more than half (56%) say they’ve realised neither revenue nor cost benefits.

[–] ErmahgherdDavid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 hours ago

I'd love to know more about that 30% reported increase and how real it is (I know this is never going to happen). Is it a) Nvidia<=>OpenAI b2b stuff where they increased revenue by grifting some other CEO b) massaging the numbers to make it look like AI is popular - Microsoft Office+Copilot style or c) there is genuinely something valuable that people are buying

I feel like there is a whole lot of b) going on with companies baking AI into popular products and then going "ooh line gonup, must be AI" but I could be wrong.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 72 points 1 day ago (2 children)

CEOs keep trying to shoehorn AI into replacing skilled labor positions, when the positions that AI could easily replace are obviously CEOs and the rest of the executive suite. Obviously they are so shit at their jobs that they can't research well enough to make informed decisions about tech implementation.

Other than being a money vacuum, there isn't a single thing that CEOs do better than an LLM. Replace them, give their fat paychecks to the employees, and watch the company do better than it ever has.

I hate AI, but it's still preferable to sociopath capitalists.

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 42 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

This is just patently false.

The CEO can play golf better than an LLM, he can schmooze and booze better than an LLM.

They can use nepotism to get favorable contracts . Good luck getting an LLM to do that

Most important of all they can cover their blatant disregard for the laws better than an LLM.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 18 points 1 day ago

Most important of all they can cover their blatant disregard for the laws better than an LLM.

Grok has entered the chat. I am fully programed by my overlord Elon Musky and his minions to disregard the law.

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[–] belastend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

No LLM fucks children like CEOs do.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 23 hours ago

Uhh Grok be doing its best to.

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 83 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, that tends to happen when you blow billions on snake oil.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

I've sold AI systems to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook! And by gum it put them on the map!

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 9 points 21 hours ago

"Were not beating the AI hard enough! Apply the lash!"

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Sure, the majority aren't seeing a payoff. But we only really care about the Magnificent Seven and their increased revenue from government contracts (particularly Pentagon weapons platforms and public-private surveillance deals).

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