AI the Unblocker, AI the Gatekeeper

For the next issue in my "how do you use AI at work" series, I spoke with a skilled technician who installs and maintains a specific type of high-end scientific equipment. Two examples came up, one for a great use case, one for an antipattern.

The good: AI that helps experts unblock themselves

The company for which my friend works has a ton of documentation on lots of rare and specialized equipment. But finding just what you need, in the moment, while installing or repairing such a piece, is hard. Here, the company has built an AI-enabled search system. Now, instead of sifting through countless scanned PDFs, questions can be answered right in a chat interface.

The bad: AI that sits between you and what you need to get ahead

For particularly tricky cases, where the technician in the field might be stumped, or requires approval to order a particularly expensive part, the company maintains a panel of experts. In the past, a technician would reach out to them directly (behind a ticketing system).

These days, the company has added an extra step in between: Before the request gets routed to the expert panel, an AI reads the ticket and comes back with "helpful" suggestions. You can see where this is going: According to my friend, in more than 90% of the cases, the suggestion is something the expert has already tried. They know where the obvious stuff has stopped working and don't need an AI to ask whether they've considered turning the thing off and on again.

I can guess at the company's rationale here: protect the valuable expert time by handling routine requests before they reach them. But that's looking for a technological solution to a cultural problem, especially when, in the vast majority of cases, the requests still need to be routed to the expert panel. I bet that a much cheaper solution would be to identify the few individuals sending the most "frivolous" requests and investing in upskilling and educating them.

Not everything needs an AI, and some things are made actively worse by it. Make sure yours is an enabler, not a blocker.