I replaced my boss with AI

Ryan Kailath; Getty Images; BI This summer, we decided it was time to outsource my boss.

Well, really, I "replaced" my boss with AI, working with a chatbot trained in his image.

RyanBot, named for its human counterpart, turned out to be an existential rumination on leadership.

My boss had a proposal: It was time to replace him with AI .

It was late spring, following months of AI-attributed layoffs across the economy that left workers wondering: Am I next? In the name of journalism, my editor and direct manager, Ryan Kailath , agreed to be a guinea pig.

I'm an AI skeptic , but some aspects of "RyanBot" excited me.

It wouldn't be busy with meetings, lunch breaks, or other reporters.

It could read every line of a 100-page data report and provide feedback within seconds.

I could see how having a second brain trained on my editor's preferences and proclivities might be helpful.

While that proved true sometimes, working with my boss's AI clone taught me the value of skills I didn't realize were crucial in a manager until they were gone.

I had accidentally stumbled upon one of the biggest questions in our AI-workplace age.

"It's going back to our roots of understanding who a manager is," said Emily Campion, an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa.

"What is the goal of a manager in an organization? Or to make it even maybe a little more philosophical: What is a leader?" And if you're wondering, Ryan recused himself from editing this story, though he did fact-check the final draft.

How we set up my ChatGPT boss At the end of May, Ryan and I sat down with ChatGPT's Codex .