This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he'd do it again | Fortune
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“It was extremely difficult,” IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughan tells Fortune. “But changing minds was harder than adding skills.”

“Every single Monday was called ‘AI Monday,’” Vaughan said, with his mandate for staff that they could work only on AI. “You couldn’t have customer calls; you couldn’t work on budgets; you had to only work on AI projects.” He said this happened across the board, not just for tech workers, but also for sales, marketing, and everybody else at IgniteTech. “That culture needed to be built. That was the key.”

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.ukEnglish
    1·
    16 days ago

    Vaughan was surprised to find it was often the technical staff, not marketing or sales, who dug in their heels. They were the “most resistant,” he said, voicing various concerns about what the AI couldn’t do, rather than focusing on what it could. The marketing and salespeople were enthused by the possibilities of working with these new tools, he added.

    So the people that had an actual idea of what the implications of using it might be weren’t on board? Huh. Weird.

    • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      16 days ago

      “All the engineers said my “screen door on a submarine” was “stupid” and would “sink the ship”, so I fired them and hired new engineers!”

      • CEO of now defunct “Screen Door Subs Inc.”