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

10 Jun 2026 28 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Nathan LabenzRebecca Hinds

Claim mix

belief 11evaluation 8prediction 4observation 2recommendation 2commitment 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

28 published records

01 / prediction

It strikes me that the importance of mission and mission buy-in might really be at a premium in the near term, because I can just imagine a hugely different reaction if you sort of imagine your scene from The Office where it's kind of generic widget code, paper co, indistinguishable from tons of other competitors, where if you ask, if we don't do it, who will?

“It strikes me that the importance of mission and mission buy-in might really be at a premium in the near term, because I can just imagine a hugely different reaction if you sort of imagine your scene from The Office where it's kind of generic widget code, paper co, indistinguishable from tons of other competitors, where if you ask, if we don't do it, who will?”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

02 / evaluation

What does the employee find meaningful? Because that meaning is going to drive their best work and it's going to drive situations where when they do get the time savings, they're reinvesting it into the betterment of themselves, their teams, and the organizations rather than more clicks of the tool or taking the time savings for themselves and not the organization.

“What does the employee find meaningful? Because that meaning is going to drive their best work and it's going to drive situations where when they do get the time savings, they're reinvesting it into the betterment of themselves, their teams, and the organizations rather than more clicks of the tool or taking the time savings for themselves and not the organization.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

03 / observation

We don't foreground it because there's so much, but what we see in the most effective organization, so the 13% who have employees saying that significant productivity gains are occurring, They measure.

“We don't foreground it because there's so much, but what we see in the most effective organization, so the 13% who have employees saying that significant productivity gains are occurring, They measure.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

04 / evaluation

These are hard drivers of performance. And it's a very difficult calculus because it differs for every person, every team, every organization, but it's absolutely essential that we think about, okay, what is this division of labor between humans and AI.

“These are hard drivers of performance. And it's a very difficult calculus because it differs for every person, every team, every organization, but it's absolutely essential that we think about, okay, what is this division of labor between humans and AI.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

05 / prediction

Tell me if you think this will play out differently, but I suspect that we're going to see a pretty similar phenomenon extended to the rest of the economy and probably a few successive waves over the not too long of a time horizon.

“Tell me if you think this will play out differently, but I suspect that we're going to see a pretty similar phenomenon extended to the rest of the economy and probably a few successive waves over the not too long of a time horizon.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

06 / observation

In the research, it's sometimes called coordination neglect, right? And I think the most concrete example of this is you can have me as an individual worker, I take a single bullet point, I convert it into a five page report, I send it to my colleague.

“In the research, it's sometimes called coordination neglect, right? And I think the most concrete example of this is you can have me as an individual worker, I take a single bullet point, I convert it into a five page report, I send it to my colleague.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

08 / belief

In the best cases, we're seeing executives pinpoint 80% of AI initiatives failing because failing is part of innovation. that I think we need to keep in mind too is a lack of transformation in certain areas is very healthy because it indicates that in the best cases, you're taking well-intentioned risks and benefits and hopefully learning from those failures as well.

“In the best cases, we're seeing executives pinpoint 80% of AI initiatives failing because failing is part of innovation. that I think we need to keep in mind too is a lack of transformation in certain areas is very healthy because it indicates that in the best cases, you're taking well-intentioned risks and benefits and hopefully learning from those failures as well.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

09 / belief

You send your digital note taker bot to a meeting, it signals that you don't value other people's time in a way that is a deeply human phenomenon. And I think that's another big piece of this whole picture inside and outside of meetings as well.

“You send your digital note taker bot to a meeting, it signals that you don't value other people's time in a way that is a deeply human phenomenon. And I think that's another big piece of this whole picture inside and outside of meetings as well.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

10 / belief

One thing I wanted to follow up on was your comment on meaning. And because I thought that this was a I would say a striking apparent contradiction in the report is the observation that the people who feel most threatened by AI seem to be most eager to adopt it and use it more and more.

“One thing I wanted to follow up on was your comment on meaning. And because I thought that this was a I would say a striking apparent contradiction in the report is the observation that the people who feel most threatened by AI seem to be most eager to adopt it and use it more and more.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

11 / belief

I think, in many ways, what we're seeing with AI is not unlike what we've seen with previous technologies, in particular when we think about the change management.

“I think, in many ways, what we're seeing with AI is not unlike what we've seen with previous technologies, in particular when we think about the change management.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

12 / belief

I've long followed Amy Edmondson's great work and I think psychological safety has never been more important in our organization because ideally you have the people raising their hands and saying, this is bot **** or I contributed to bot **** and here is why.

“I've long followed Amy Edmondson's great work and I think psychological safety has never been more important in our organization because ideally you have the people raising their hands and saying, this is bot **** or I contributed to bot **** and here is why.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

13 / belief

I think we kind of have the easiest time imagining a version of the world that's pretty similar to the current one, but where like a lot of stuff is automated and so the savings kind of get passed on to the consumer.

“I think we kind of have the easiest time imagining a version of the world that's pretty similar to the current one, but where like a lot of stuff is automated and so the savings kind of get passed on to the consumer.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

14 / belief

In so many organizations, employees want to use different models and different tools. And that's why I'm excited about Glean as a platform as well, because there's no situation in my mind that I can envision where we have a single model a single tool environment.

“In so many organizations, employees want to use different models and different tools. And that's why I'm excited about Glean as a platform as well, because there's no situation in my mind that I can envision where we have a single model a single tool environment.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

15 / belief

The problem is we don't have, most organizations in part because of the context problem, don't understand where the time savings is going and how to extract meaning from it at the team and organizational level. And that's the problem because we start to see, you know, that's I think feeding a lot of this more is more pressure.

“The problem is we don't have, most organizations in part because of the context problem, don't understand where the time savings is going and how to extract meaning from it at the team and organizational level. And that's the problem because we start to see, you know, that's I think feeding a lot of this more is more pressure.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

17 / belief

I guess another way I might interpret it if I think about the person who was in the traditional sort of customer service or customer success role and is now being asked to babysit bots, is maybe some of this turnover could in fact be healthy.

“I guess another way I might interpret it if I think about the person who was in the traditional sort of customer service or customer success role and is now being asked to babysit bots, is maybe some of this turnover could in fact be healthy.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

19 / evaluation

There are healthy forms of bot sitting, but more often than not, it is negative, it is tedious, it is exhausting, it is not rewarded, and it's not appreciated or tracked or measured and certainly not incentivized within the organization. And I think that is feeding a lot of this failed expectations, the an execution gap that we see across the board, not recognizing the human labor and recognizing that this isn't in most cases a problem in terms of the individual employee.

“There are healthy forms of bot sitting, but more often than not, it is negative, it is tedious, it is exhausting, it is not rewarded, and it's not appreciated or tracked or measured and certainly not incentivized within the organization. And I think that is feeding a lot of this failed expectations, the an execution gap that we see across the board, not recognizing the human labor and recognizing that this isn't in most cases a problem in terms of the individual employee.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

20 / evaluation

amount of people who have sent digital twins to lead meetings on their behalf and the sheer volume of meetings that now have at least one note taker, that's where I become very nervous and frustrated because meetings are so expensive.

“amount of people who have sent digital twins to lead meetings on their behalf and the sheer volume of meetings that now have at least one note taker, that's where I become very nervous and frustrated because meetings are so expensive.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

21 / evaluation

What we're seeing in practice, and I'm not convinced this won't change, But when we think about the mental model of a teammate, that is extremely valuable right now because it gives employees something concrete to explain, how do I think about this thing in my day-to-day work?

“What we're seeing in practice, and I'm not convinced this won't change, But when we think about the mental model of a teammate, that is extremely valuable right now because it gives employees something concrete to explain, how do I think about this thing in my day-to-day work?”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

22 / recommendation

Yeah, I used to tell people, When I did any sort of AI advisory consulting, I would say you could do a lot worse than as a leader just watching your token consumption, but definitely don't tell the team that's how you're gonna be measuring them.

“Yeah, I used to tell people, When I did any sort of AI advisory consulting, I would say you could do a lot worse than as a leader just watching your token consumption, but definitely don't tell the team that's how you're gonna be measuring them.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

24 / prediction

I think we are seeing smaller and smaller teams. And I think that makes sense because if we're using AI in the right way, A, it should reduce the massive coordination tax of work.

“I think we are seeing smaller and smaller teams. And I think that makes sense because if we're using AI in the right way, A, it should reduce the massive coordination tax of work.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

25 / recommendation

We absolutely need to see the CEOs and executives using the technology. But bottom-up change is just as important and finding these AI influencers or champions within your organization is so essential to activate and activate meaningful change and not just the symbolic change because the CEO has told us to use the technology.

“We absolutely need to see the CEOs and executives using the technology. But bottom-up change is just as important and finding these AI influencers or champions within your organization is so essential to activate and activate meaningful change and not just the symbolic change because the CEO has told us to use the technology.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

26 / evaluation

I think people like me sort of run a bit of a risk of getting detached from, especially because I work by myself largely these days, kind of run a risk of getting detached from what's going on in the real world at real companies that are actually driving most of the economy and where not everybody has the luxury or the inclination to be a bleeding edge early adopter with all of the, I'd say more ups than downs, certainly, but certainly a mix of ups and downs that come with that.

“I think people like me sort of run a bit of a risk of getting detached from, especially because I work by myself largely these days, kind of run a risk of getting detached from what's going on in the real world at real companies that are actually driving most of the economy and where not everybody has the luxury or the inclination to be a bleeding edge early adopter with all of the, I'd say more ups than downs, certainly, but certainly a mix of ups and downs that come with that.”
Speaker
Nathan Labenz
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

27 / evaluation

You try to tweak one thing because the nature of the technology is probabilistic, it's not deterministic, you're not really sure what you tweaked that worked and didn't.

“You try to tweak one thing because the nature of the technology is probabilistic, it's not deterministic, you're not really sure what you tweaked that worked and didn't.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution

28 / prediction

Those types of things we're seeing in effective organizations, but we're not seeing it at scale in a way that I think we should. And again, if I think 10 steps ahead, if you do have a context graph, if you do have an enterprise graph, well, it can help you make that determination because it will know where value has been created and it can start to give you recommendations and we see it in the data where, A large portion of employees are saying already their organizations are using AI to inform performance management, hiring and firing too.

“Those types of things we're seeing in effective organizations, but we're not seeing it at scale in a way that I think we should. And again, if I think 10 steps ahead, if you do have a context graph, if you do have an enterprise graph, well, it can help you make that determination because it will know where value has been created and it can start to give you recommendations and we see it in the data where, A large portion of employees are saying already their organizations are using AI to inform performance management, hiring and firing too.”
Speaker
Rebecca Hinds
Publisher
The Cognitive Revolution
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