IgniteTech company CEO Eric Vaughn took a very tough decision in 2023. When about 80% of his employees opposed the company’s policy of adopting AI, he fired them all.
IgniteTech company CEO Eric Vaughn took a very tough decision in 2023. When about 80% of his employees opposed the company’s policy of adopting AI (Artificial Intelligence), he fired them all. Vaughn told Fortune magazine that this decision was very difficult, but if it happens again, he will do the same again.
AI Monday and anger of employees
According to the news of Times of India, Vaughn had said in early 2023 that AI is a big threat to business. After this he started “AI Monday”, where every Monday the employees had to do only AI related work. Hundreds of employees opposed this entire change. Instead of convincing them, Vaughan chose to replace them with new employees.
Technical experts were also behind, marketing team was ahead
Surprisingly, the most opposition came from the technical staff. According to Vaughan, these employees expressed concern about the limitations of AI, hesitated to adopt its capabilities. In contrast, the marketing and sales teams seemed more open to new AI tools and training.
Money spent on training, but opposition increased
Vaughan also spent 20% of the company’s payroll to teach AI to employees. This included reimbursement of expenses on AI tools and classes like ‘Prompt Engineering’. But many employees obstructed it or refused outright. Due to this opposition, a large part of the company’s employees changed in 12 months.
Profits increased, but CEO’s suggestion did not
By 2024, the benefits of this difficult change started showing. IgniteTech launched two new AI products whose patent process is underway. He also bought a big company and earned a high profit (EBITDA) of about 75%. This shows that Vaughn’s strict approach worked.
According to a research, this problem is not just of his company. One-third of the employees sabotage the company’s AI plans, and 41% of millennial and Gen-G employees try to avoid AI implementation. Although successful, Vaughn does not advise other leaders to make a big change like him. He says that this was not his plan in advance, but was the result of opposition from the employees.
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