As AI companies become larger in valuation and usage, there is an ongoing debate about how AI is replacing humans in various jobs. Studies suggest that roles where AI can automate most tasks will be affectedalthough some analysts believe that AI can also create jobs, with the displacement effect only transitory.
David Shim, CEO of notes and insights company Read AI, told TechCrunch at Web Summit Qatar earlier this month that even with the rise of AI tools, ultimately humans will decide the course of action and their work will be important. He equated the technology with using maps in a car.
“I think there will always be a man in the middle,” Shim said. “I think the job will get easier over time. But a good example would be like driving a car. When we first started, you had a map. And you’d pull out the map. You’d get in and say okay drive. I decide what’s going to happen. Now everybody’s using Waze or Google Maps and the map tells you where to go and who can take the lane. It happens.”
Shim acknowledged that AI will impact jobs, noting that advertising agencies may lose human roles in favor of automated tools. However, he noted that technology platforms would need jobs to oversee the automation process.
Abdullah Asiri, founder of AI-powered consumer support tools startup Lucidyasaid he believes AI will replace tasks but not roles. He said that when his company’s customers use Lucidya, customer support agents often take on different roles and responsibilities. He noted that some become supervisors who guide other humans and AI, while others take on relationship-building and business development responsibilities using the time they saved.
Read AI’s Shim noted that meeting note-takers have freed people from taking notes by hand.
“No one here wants to sit down and take meeting notes, but as you start to remove that work, you have a little more time to do other things that you can focus on. You can send that report a little faster, or you can respond to a client and really have better context to make better decisions, instead of spending a lot of time gathering all the information and having little time.”
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Internal use and adoption of AI
As tech companies like Read AI and Lucidya increasingly use AI tools, they want to keep their teams lean. Currently, Read AI’s customer service team consists of just five people, serving millions of monthly users. Shim noted that the company uses artificial intelligence tools to make a small team more productive and give them more context to help them get their work done faster.
Companies are said to be reaping productivity gains. Read AI said its sales tool helps predict the status of a deal using data from CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce. The startup said it has approved $200 million worth of deals through this system. Shim said Read AI captures 23% more context with each update, which could be used to assess what worked or what didn’t on a lead call.
Lucidya’s Asiri also noted that the company uses artificial intelligence tools, including Read AI, for meeting and creating marketing assets. He said the company wants “scale results without scaling employees.”
“The goal for every company is to hire people who are native to AI, who are very strong with AI, but we have to be realistic,” Asiri said. “Today, that skill is growing. You can’t find many people who have very strong AI capabilities, not building AI, but using AI.”
Asiri noted that it would be more desirable to hire people who could create agents to help them do their jobs.
Manipulating customer perception of artificial intelligence
Shim noted that just a few years ago, many people were hesitant to have AI note takers in meetings and didn’t understand why a robot was on a call. However, now people are more receptive to note takers as long as you give them control over the recording, he said.
Asiri said Lucidya discloses to users when it uses voice AI to communicate. He said that for users, solving problems is more important than having an AI bot handle their calls.
“It’s all about problem solving and finding the customer’s problems and solving them,” Asiri said. “As long as AI agents really focus on that part, customers are happy to have their issues resolved. The customer really doesn’t care if it’s fixed by AI or by a human, as long as it’s fixed quickly and accurately.”
