Paul Welty, PhD AI, WORK, AND STAYING HUMAN

AI and the Canadian Workforce: A New Era of Jobs and Skill Development

Explore how AI reshapes jobs and skills in Canada, driving workforce evolution and new opportunities for growth and development.

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AI and the Canadian Workforce: A New Era of Jobs and Skill Development

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Featured writing

Why customer tools are organized wrong

This article reveals a fundamental flaw in how customer support tools are designed—organizing by interaction type instead of by customer—and explains why this fragmentation wastes time and obscures the full picture you need to help users effectively.

Busy is not a state

We've built work cultures that reward activity, even when nothing actually changes. In technical systems, activity doesn't count—only state change does. This essay explores why "busy" has become the most misleading signal we have, and how focusing on state instead of motion makes work more honest, less draining, and actually productive.

Infrastructure shapes thought

The tools you build determine what kinds of thinking become possible. On infrastructure, friction, and building deliberately for thought rather than just throughput.

Books

The Work of Being (in progress)

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The Practice of Work (in progress)

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

Recent writing

Dev reflection - January 31, 2026

I've been thinking about what happens when your tools start asking better questions than you do.

Dev reflection - January 30, 2026

So here's something that happened yesterday that I'm still thinking about. Seven different projects—completely unrelated work, different domains, different goals—all hit the same wall on the same d...

Dev reflection - January 29, 2026

So here's something I've been sitting with. You finish a piece of work. You ship it. Everything looks good. And then production starts teaching you that you weren't actually done.

Notes and related thinking

Bookmark: Mastercard exec wants companies to reskill workers before AI comes for their jobs

Mastercard's exec urges businesses to prioritize reskilling workers to prepare for the AI revolution and safeguard jobs.

Bookmark: Research: How Gen AI Is Already Impacting the Labor Market

Discover how generative AI tools are reshaping the gig economy, creating new opportunities, challenges, and transforming job roles in the labor market.

Bookmark: Marc Benioff says that from now on CEOs will no longer lead all-human workforces—enter the new era of AI coworkers

Discover how Marc Benioff envisions CEOs leading hybrid teams of humans and AI, transforming workforce dynamics and enhancing productivity.