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This is a fun joke, but there's a real element of truth to it: A big fraction of senior executives' work is vulnerable to replacement by AI. In other fields, w
by ForHackernews 3mo ago
This is a fun joke, but there's a real element of truth to it: A big fraction of senior executives' work is vulnerable to replacement by AI.
In other fields, where automation or tooling has enabled technicians to do work that previously required expensive expertise, there's been a drive from management to replace those costly professionals.
What's the parallel for executives? Is the CEO market ripe for disruption by a flashy entertainer who can act as a Musk-esque figurehead for 5-15 companies, replacing their expensive CEOs?
- 21asdffdsa12 3mo agoHire a theater kid and put a knob in its ear.
- vachina 3mo agoAI cannot replace CEO the same reason AI cannot replace your girlfriend.
- afavour 3mo agoThink you’re going to need to elaborate on that
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- LightMyFire2 3mo ago[dead]
- Grum9 3mo ago[dead]
- _AzMoo 3mo agoA CEO's job isn't the one that everybody here apparently thinks it is. A CEO's job is networking, marketing and PR. They get paid the way they do because they can get into the rooms they need to get into to build the inter-business relationships they need to build.
- phoghed 3mo agoSo you’re saying that what makes them able to be a CEO is that they became a CEO
- _AzMoo 3mo agoThat's right. Obviously they need to build a network before they become a CEO, but that's what Ivy League's, family connections, and exclusive private schools are for.
- SpicyLemonZest 3mo agoYes, but the way you're phrasing it suggests there's something getting lost in translation. A CEO's job is to perform the role of CEO: when the head of engineering wants to zig, and the head of marketing wants to zag, they need to choose between the two in a way that leaves no question about what the decision is or whether the direction should be followed. I don't think people would obey an AI oracle in that way, I certainly wouldn't.
- ForHackernews 3mo ago>I don't think people would obey an AI oracle in that way You clearly haven't encountered the large group of people who trust hallucinated LLM output more than their coworkers.
- SpicyLemonZest 3mo agoWhen they like the output, sure. I've never had any luck convincing them to change course by showing that I can prompt an LLM to say something else.
- ForHackernews 3mo agoHire a pharma rep to do those public-facing parts of the job, hand over strategy and analysis to the bot.
- pdpi 3mo agoAI can’t replace genuine 1:1 human interaction. We’re social animals, and a machine pretending to be a human can’t engender the same emotional response as another human.
- fidotron 3mo ago> a machine pretending to be a human can’t engender the same emotional response as another human. If this were so obviously true there wouldn't be nearly so much concern about people having relationships with AIs.
- afavour 3mo agoNo, that’s why there is a concern. They’re replacing human relationships with things that superficially look like human relationships but have no depth.
- fidotron 3mo agoNo, that's other people being concerned, it's not the people in the relationships that are concerned. The position was "a machine pretending to be a human can’t engender the same emotional response as another human" and quite clearly to some people it can, so the statement is false.
- afavour 3mo agoBut how much of a CEO’s job requires 1:1 human interaction? If I as a software developer am to be told I can do fine without human meetings to discuss product requirements, why can’t CEOs? If CEOs are going to start claiming that a core role of their job is emotional inspiration as a result of all those all hands meetings they’re going to be surprised how much laughter they get in return.
- drstewart 3mo ago>But how much of a CEO’s job requires 1:1 human interaction? Basically all of it > If I as a software developer am to be told I can do fine without human meetings to discuss product requirements, why can’t CEOs? Because your job is different than a CEO (and it's also not true for your job)
- cyanydeez 3mo agothe AI and your GF have things you desire that are irreplaceable: social status.
- dist-epoch 3mo agoTalk for yourself. > Teen boys are choosing AI girlfriends over real ones for "maximum control, zero rejection" https://fortune.com/2026/04/17/teen-boys-dating-ai-chatbot-girlfriend-experts-warn-kill-social-skills-gen-alpha-network-promotions/ https://fortune.com/2026/04/17/teen-boys-dating-ai-chatbot-g... > The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends. Boys as young as 12 are now in romantic ‘relationships’ with chatbots, and it’s affecting how they treat girls in the real world https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/25/schoolboys-ai-girlfriends/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/25/schoolboys-ai-gi...
- shadowfiend 3mo ago... Yeah, that's a replacement for your girlfriend kind of like watching TV is a replacement for eating dinner...
- CuriouslyC 3mo agoNot a great analogy. These kids are partially satisfying something with AI girlfriends. I'd liken it more to people giving up on food and living on Soylent.
- afavour 3mo agoWow, look at that, teenage boys making awful choices, who’d have guessed
- bragh 3mo agoAwful choice for whom exactly? From their point of view, it is the rational choice.
- afavour 3mo agoAwful choice for themselves and their futures. They may think they are making a rational choice but they’re not thinking about the future. Just like teenagers have always done. Not that any of it is gender specific. The women on /r/myboyfriendisai are making the exact same mistakes, in many ways it’s worse because many are fully grown adults.
- meindnoch 3mo agoI think your workplace might have a problem with sexual harassment.
- chucksmash 3mo agoBecause I don't have a CEO?
- ForHackernews 3mo agoBecause she's in bed with the board?
- helsinkiandrew 3mo ago> A big fraction of senior executives' work is vulnerable to replacement by AI. A big fraction of a senior executives' work can also be delegated to others in the company (or outside consultants and services), the thing that can't is being ultimately responsible for making the final decisions - product, people, direction etc.
- happymellon 3mo agoWhich they don't take responsibility for anyway.
- b112 3mo agoIn the 80s and early 90s, massive swaths of "middle management" were purged by Corporate America. Those managers have never returned. That's not CxO class of course, but these were 'executives'. Very well paid ones at the time, what might have been considered 'upper middle income'. Well-to-do. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZWKGZGN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZWKGZGN Human Resources: A Tor Original by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Author) An amusing take on it. Because it makes sense. It isn't the CEO that's the last to be fired. It's the HR guy, because you need HR until there's no one left to fire.
- JohnHaugeland 3mo agoin 1992 middle management was 9.2% of the workforce. in 2022 it was 13.1% use data when you make claims
- actionfromafar 3mo agoIs it the same kind of middle management? Was the 1980 kind well paid, and the current one not? (I have no idea, but now I wonder.)
- b112 3mo agoBold words. Those are not the same middle managers. Do research before you counter claims. Corporate America was gutted. This was also when hostile takeovers were the new thing. Buy, slice and dice and parting out of corps was all the rage.
- simianwords 3mo ago> A big fraction of senior executives' work is vulnerable to replacement by AI. what? how? literally what work is already not done by some subordinate that an executive does now? if some work can be replaced, its already done by some employee. those employees are susceptible to replacement.