Reimagining Workflows with AI for Human Augmentation

Key Quotes

"I just think people wake up in the morning and they want their jobs to matter they want to feel like they're making a difference and so they they want they want to build relationships they want to build community they want to they want to know that what they're doing is having a strategic impact on the community they're with the people they're with the people they're spending their day to day with and uh i think when that happens you work differently"

Jason Beutler argues that the desire for meaningful work is a fundamental human motivation. He explains that when individuals feel their work has a strategic impact and contributes to their community, their approach to their job changes, leading to greater engagement and fulfillment. This perspective highlights the importance of purpose in the workplace, even as technology evolves.

"My grandfather read this story but he would tell it to me often uh when talking about uh you know uh he knew someone that worked at a factory and and spent all their time working basically just doing the same thing over and over again it was happy as he's ever been and the new guy had come in and was uh doing the same thing and just felt miserable the whole time and felt like he was it was meaningless and that what he was doing didn't really matter at all uh and couldn't understand why this older guy was so thrilled uh and he's like all we're doing is putting the same screw into the same hole on all these different different vehicles or whatnot and the older guy goes no i'm protecting my kids i'm protecting my children i'm protecting the the millions of families are going to buy this car because i put this thing on right"

Jason Beutler shares an anecdote to illustrate how perspective shapes the perception of meaningful work. He explains that the older factory worker found joy and purpose in his repetitive task by reframing it as a contribution to family safety and the well-being of others. This story underscores Beutler's belief that meaning is derived from the impact of one's work, not solely from the task itself.

"Most of the people that i interact with are afraid that that their leadership is going to see their work as not meaningful and that's where i think the fear is coming in is this uncertainty around how leadership's going to view them and so what they're trying to do in my conversations with them is they're trying to figure out how can i make sure that the leadership knows that i'm adding value and that i'm doing meaningful things and this world of ai is throwing some you know ambiguity into that because where how they used to add value is starting to shift"

Jason Beutler identifies a primary source of fear regarding AI in the workplace. He explains that employees are concerned about how leadership will perceive their contributions as AI automates more tasks. This uncertainty drives individuals to seek ways to demonstrate their value, especially as traditional methods of adding value begin to change.

"Here's what I believe at least where AI stands today it does not have access to all of the context in order to make the decisions that a business actually wants made and therefore the real value that happens is in the conversation with people to solve problems that frankly the technology can't even comprehend because it doesn't even know exists"

Jason Beutler asserts that current AI lacks the comprehensive context needed for critical business decisions. He argues that the most significant value is generated through human conversation, enabling the resolution of complex problems that AI cannot yet grasp. This highlights Beutler's view that human interaction remains essential for true problem-solving.

"My son's a a musician he's an artist he writes he writes a lot of music when he sits down to write a song we often end up in writer's block we end up just stuck we're like i don't know what to do so he starts playing with it and he's like i know the chords i know how to put them together i can play licks all day long nothing's connecting what i find though is when i say hey let's pick up a cover song let's grab the beatles let's start rocking on the beatles a little bit and we just start goofing around and we're just fiddling around playing the beatles singing it together and and you know all of a sudden he'll look at me and he'll go ooh i have an idea and then he starts riffing on a new song"

Jason Beutler uses a personal anecdote about his musician son to illustrate the power of play in fostering creativity. He explains that by engaging in familiar activities, like playing cover songs, new ideas emerge organically. Beutler suggests this approach of "playing" with AI is crucial for discovering innovative ways to integrate it into business processes.

"The processes are now managed by ai we can do ab testing of processes like that's pretty unique and if you can as a small or mid sized business say here's my process now i'm going to make some changes and i'm going to basically say take version a send 50 of my runs there take version b send 50 there and now compare the efficiency and what's actually happening the amount of time we're spending on that like that allows you to be scientific in how you start to scale your process"

Jason Beutler describes a unique capability enabled by AI-managed processes: A/B testing. He explains that businesses can scientifically compare different versions of a process to optimize efficiency and resource allocation. Beutler highlights this as a powerful tool for scaling operations, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.