AI is making the workplace lonelier

""I like working with people, and it's sad that I 'need' them less now," one employee at Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, says in a new report on how the firm is itself using the new technology. Anthropic says some of its engineers are turning to Claude for questions that used to go to colleagues: "Some report fewer mentorship and collaboration opportunities." Zoom out: This isn't just happening inside AI companies - chatbot colleagues are seeping into all kinds of white-collar workplaces."

""64% of the workers who said AI is making them more productive also said they have a better relationship with AI than with their coworkers, a survey by Upwork, a freelance marketplace, found earlier this year. How it works: Before asking a colleague or boss a question, you ask a bot. "It feels like AI is becoming the new Google, where I feel a little annoyed if someone asks me a simple question that a quick search could have answered," Thomas Weinandy, an economist, tells Axios.""

""I hate myself for saying it, but a big reason Gemini works [is] because it functions as the colleague with no drama," says Neil Ripley, a communications executive, referring to Google's chatbot. "It's not 'jamming on something' and needs to get back to me," he writes in an email. "I don't have to juggle time zones. It's not overwhelmed from life. It won't judge me or gossip for asking dumb or last-minute questions.""

Employees increasingly use chatbots like Claude and Gemini to answer work questions that previously went to colleagues, reducing mentorship and collaboration opportunities. A majority of workers who report productivity gains also report closer relationships with AI than with coworkers. Workers ask bots before asking colleagues, valuing AI's immediacy, reliability, absence of drama, and lack of judgment. Chatbots often provide agreeable feedback, which can avoid friction but also deprives workers of critical challenge that sharpens ideas. Workplace consultants warn that reliance on pleasing AI answers could degrade skills, mentorship, and critical engagement over time, creating long-term problems.

Read at Axios