Babysitting the Machine: Glean's Rebecca Hinds on the Hidden Human Labor of AI at Work

About this episode

Rebecca Hinds discusses the hidden human labor involved in AI adoption and the productivity paradox revealed in the Work AI Index 2026 report.

Rebecca Hinds, author of "Your Best Meeting Ever" and Head of the Work AI Institute at Glean, breaks down the surprising findings from the new Work AI Index 2026 report surveying 6,000 workers. While 87% now use AI and report saving 13 hours per week, only 13% say their organization is performing significantly better—a paradox explained by two new concepts: "botsitting" (the hidden labor of making AI useful) and "botshitting" (delivering AI-generated work you can't defend). They discuss practical solutions including better-integrated AI systems, smarter AI detection policies, and aligning work to meaningful missions. LINKS: Rebecca Hinds Personal Website Glean Work AI Institute Your Best Meeting Ever Book Glean Enterprise AI Platform Stanford Future of Work Glean Enterprise Graph Pangram Labs AI Detection OpenAI ChatGPT Product Page Anthropic Claude Product Page Google Gemini Product Page Microsoft 365 Copilot Page Glean AI Transformation 100 Rebecca Hinds LinkedIn Profile Sponsor: Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore…

People in this episode

Hosts: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz

Guest: Rebecca Hinds

Topics covered

• AI adoption
• work productivity
• hidden labor
• AI systems
• work alignment

Keywords

• AI
• productivity paradox
• botsitting
• botshitting
• work AI index

Sponsors

Claude

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Glean, Work AI Institute, Stanford, Pangram Labs

Products: Claude by Anthropic, OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Glean Enterprise AI Platform, Glean AI Transformation 100

Books & works: Your Best Meeting Ever

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