Adam Triggs Warns AI Used to Mask Business Failures

Adam Triggs, a partner at Mandala and fellow at the Brookings Institution, warns that corporations are using artificial intelligence as a "fig leaf" to conceal business failures and poor management. He argues that firms increasingly cite AI to justify reduced hiring, job cuts, and smaller graduate programs to maintain an image of innovation while avoiding admissions of over-hiring or falling revenues.

Triggs notes that this trend extends to corporate partnerships with AI firms, which he describes as a facade of leadership that lacks actual productivity gains. He supports this claim by pointing to stagnant revenue-per-worker statistics and observing that AI-driven job losses currently exceed the number of roles research typically categorizes as disrupted.

He warns that this strategy is short-sighted and contributes to an AI bubble. Triggs suggests that companies risk significant public backlash if it becomes apparent that these technological pivots have failed to produce genuine productivity improvements.