High Enterprise AI Adoption But Low ROI? The Principal-Agent Problem Explains Why
astrange · x · 2026-08-12
While AI adoption in large enterprises may be high, many companies are not yet seeing the benefits. As usual, this is a human challenge rather than a technological one.
The quoted thread points out that every human in the workforce has two crude economic goals: to be richer and to be lazier. This creates a strange problem for enterprise AI: AI can make every individual employee dramatically more productive without making the enterprise itself more productive.
For instance, if AI saves a Goldman Sachs analyst hours of work fixing a presentation, they might simply choose to go home early rather than taking on more work for the company. The author argues they are bullish on startups, as they can build strong cultures where early employees act more like Principals rather than Agents, choosing to leverage AI to generate more value for the business.
Related event: Enterprise AI Adoption Stalls: Management Lag and Human Dynamics(7 posts)→
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