Business leaders have enforced strict AI adoption measures, including replacing or firing employees who resist new tools. Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech, replaced nearly 80% of staff over a year during a generative AI-driven strategy overhaul and instituted mandatory AI-only workdays called 'AI Monday.' Vaughan said changing minds was harder than adding skills and restricted non-AI tasks. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong required engineers to onboard enterprise AI tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, warning of meetings for those who did not comply. Armstrong admitted the heavy-handed push caused issues but emphasized the need for rapid adoption.
Justifying big money investment in AI projects has reached extreme levels in recent months, with business leaders going so far as to sack employees who refuse to embrace the technology. According to recent reports from , Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech, took drastic action when faced with the prospect of a strategy overhaul during the early days of the generative AI 'boom', eventually replacing nearly 80% of staff within the space of a year.
Vaughan noted that "changing minds was harder than adding skills" when embarking on a company-wide AI transformation program. Intent on driving enthusiasm for the technology, Vaughan revealed that "every single Monday was called 'AI Monday'" during the early stages of this process, with the company mandating that staff could work only on AI. "You couldn't work on budgets," he told Fortune. "You had to only work on AI projects."
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