Workers are spending more than six hours a week supervising artificial intelligence systems, a practice known as 'botsitting,' according to a new report by Glean cited by Business Insider. This hidden human labor involves monitoring AI outputs to catch errors and ensure quality, effectively adding nearly a full workday to employees' weekly tasks.
The Glean report highlights that botsitting requires workers to intervene frequently when AI systems produce inaccurate or inappropriate results. This oversight is necessary across various industries where AI tools assist with tasks but cannot yet operate autonomously without human checks. The additional workload has led to increased frustration among employees who must manage these AI systems alongside their regular duties.
The phenomenon of botsitting underscores challenges in AI deployment, where human labor remains essential to maintain system reliability. As AI adoption grows, companies face the dual challenge of leveraging automation while managing the hidden costs of continuous human supervision. This dynamic complicates the narrative of AI as a pure productivity booster and raises questions about workforce impacts.
The Glean report quantifies the botsitting time at over six hours weekly per worker, revealing a significant but often overlooked aspect of AI integration in the workplace, according to businessinsider.com.