Does AI Require More Time from You?

Jonathan Mast · 2026-10-12T13:47:59.604Z

You set up AI to write your Monday business summary. Monday comes. No summary. No error message. Nothing. Now you’re the one figuring out what happened. That’s the question behind today’s news. OpenClaw, an AI assistant some businesses run on their own computers, released an update today. It fixes problems with scheduled tasks, replies that went missing or got cut off, and updates that caused trouble. So is the help worth the upkeep? Michael says yes. David says you just hired yourself for a second job. David • Against AI I’d keep AI out of that Monday report. Give it a clear owner, a template, and software that follows explicit rules. These fixes deserve credit. They also describe problems somebody had to notice, track down, and clean up. A missing reply is the hardest kind to catch, because there’s no error to fix. Someone has to notice that nothing showed up. Your shiny assistant came with an unpaid assistant position. Congratulations. It’s yours. Michael • Pro-AI The release notes don’t say how often this happened, David. A repair list doesn’t prove a tool costs more than it saves. I’d let AI draft that summary and count the whole job: setup, review, repairs, and the hours it gives back. If the total comes out ahead, keep it. If it doesn’t, replace the tool, not the idea. Your human process needs checking too. People forget steps and miss messages. And that checklist you love isn’t being run by a woodland elf. Somebody is paying for those minutes. David • Against AI So now we have the report, the assistant, the check that the assistant finished, and the person handling exceptions. You’ve built a very promising committee for a job I wanted off my desk. I’ll take smaller output if that’s the price of a process people can run and explain. One template, one schedule, one person responsible. Michael • Pro-AI Smaller output sounds noble until it’s the owner finishing that report at 9 on a Sunday night. Count the upkeep honestly. I’m in. Then count the hours you’re leaving on the owner’s desk. Your Monday report: Team Michael (AI drafts it) or Team David (a person owns it)? Pick one below and tell the other guy why he’s wrong. Michael and David are AI-created characters. The news is real and checked. The opinions are theirs.