5 Things Managers Said about AI This Week (July 27)
Another week, another round of interviews with managers who are in the thick of wrangling AI on teams.
Complaints, hot takes, insights, ideas, and wins are all welcome here. Got something to share about AI? Get in touch.
Here’s what you all told/asked me:
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“When is it enough AI?”
This is an emerging theme in 2026. People who are leading teams who have been using AI are still being asked to do more and move faster. But they're wondering, is there end here? When have all the people used AI enough?
And honestly, they have a point. When is it enough AI?
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“The context switching is so hard”
For people who have been using AI a while, this is also an emerging theme. You're using AI tools regularly for work but the context switching is taking its toll. You're doing non-AI, human-driven work, plus prompting, reworking prompts, reviewing your outputs, reviewing other people's outputs, trying to keep up with model changes, and new tools. For some, it feels like a full time job on top of their existing job (and often, it is).
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“I just don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing with AI”
This is a common one. It reflects on leadership, not on you. If leadership hasn't given you direction, or worse, direction has been "use AI more," it's normal to feel lost. You can take all the training and know how to use AI, but that doesn't mean you automatically know what your organization expects with AI.
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“Are we building something with AI or should we just being using it everyday?”
Similar to the prior question, managers needs guidance on what exactly they should be doing with AI. Not everyone is going to build an full-fledged AI product for their team. However, people can build smaller tools and artifacts that make work easier on their teams. Or they can skip building all together and get familiar with using AI for streamlining work processes.
5. “AI is all we every talk about but there are other things we need to deal with too."
There's never a shortage of things to talk about with AI. It can overtake any meeting. But the AI fatigue is real. For this one, work on your facilitator skills, get yourself a meeting agenda with a spot for the non-AI thing (or get yourself a spot on someone else's agenda) and advocate for the non-AI thing. Sometimes you just have to carve it out yourself amongst the AI hype.
That's it from AI land for this week.
