Why Do People Feel Lonely When AI Replaces the Team?

Molly Graham says the loneliness shows up when the teammates go away and the day is spent with machines. Lenny Rachitsky describes an engineering leader who said teams used to be five or ten engineers working together, and now the teams are smaller and the work is talking to agents. It is not the same job.

A company can strip out the humans, pick up productivity, and still end up with sad people, and sad people do not do their best work. Molly reads the same pattern in survey data that small teams and smaller companies are happier than people at the bigger companies. At those bigger companies, management layers come out and the pressure is productivity, cost, and how efficient the machines are. There is less room for the person, for joy, and for excitement.