I work in IT, and surprisingly I use AI for about 5% of my work. Mainly because the suggestions are almost always useless and if I’m troubleshooting, I don’t exactly want to sit here reading irrelevant AI summaries of menu options that don’t even exist. I still use it for scripting, but I audit the output entirely and test it out before deploying it widely. Call / meeting transcript summaries are also very helpful and other menial tasks like powerpoint creation.
But my coworker is senior to me by a couple years and he’s technically my direct report. And I’ve stood behind him and watched him frantically type what users describe to him during a live call into Claude and follow the suggestions line by line and get frustrated when they don’t work, and then turn to me and ask me what I think without really trying anything himself. I feel like I’ve solved more of his problems than him solving mine. Every single troubleshooting call, claude is pulled up immediately.
A lot of the issues are either repeat or similar to each other, and even without detailed documentation I think one should be able to recognize some patterns and know what to look at first. But he’ll complicate simple issues by trying AI suggestions then when they don’t work, doubling down on what the AI think is wrong and try to find different ways to achieve its suggestions.
Elsewhere, I’ve had to delay retrieving old computers because the non-technical user decided to start a huge complicated application project in Claude on the old computer, and it’s not easy to transfer contexts and conversations over to a new computer.
I don’t know man. I’m just tired
I think the only people I can get along with on an intimate level are creatives and teachers because at least the probability of them not relying AI entirely in their lives is higher
I prefer commercial work for that reason. Plans are spec'd for XYZ parts and so XYZ is what's going in. The job costs what the job costs and no jobsite foreman is gonna come running over trying to explain to me how AI said we can do it this way instead. Most of my residential customer are actually quite pleasant. I'm fortunate there, really. I have a lot of regulars Im on a first name basis with. One of my regular customers who runs a really good BBQ shack has gifted me a smoked turkey for Xmas every year for the last five years. But what used to be zero new residential customers telling me how easy AI said it is to repair is now a non-zero number and that's far too many.
your commercial jobs are better run than a lot of the ones i've been to lol.
I think since my trade is another layer beyond plumbing most people don't even know to ask AI about it since they don't know it's a thing
I Think most of the commercial new plumbing work I've been on has been really smooth. Most planning conflicts tend to go in the plumbers favor b/c shit runs downhill, the plans are what the plans are so follow the plans and get it signed off on if anything is different.
Same thing with service and repair. You're typically dealing with a management company typically and when they have multiple commercial tenants who cannot flush a toilet, or fill a water glass etc, they usually just want it done.
Residential service and repair is a completely different animal.