The institutional-knowledge piece is easy to underestimate. A headcount spreadsheet can quantify salary saved immediately; it rarely captures the accumulated judgment, context and exception-handling that disappears with the person. AI can remove a lot of tasks. That doesn’t automatically mean removing the person who understood why those tasks existed is equally low-risk.
It also doesn’t capture the “other” work that person was quietly doing that is outside of the job description - building knowledge networks, contributing to culture, etc.
The institutional-knowledge piece is easy to underestimate. A headcount spreadsheet can quantify salary saved immediately; it rarely captures the accumulated judgment, context and exception-handling that disappears with the person. AI can remove a lot of tasks. That doesn’t automatically mean removing the person who understood why those tasks existed is equally low-risk.
It also doesn’t capture the “other” work that person was quietly doing that is outside of the job description - building knowledge networks, contributing to culture, etc.