Heather Knight
A terrible boss is the stuff of both sitcoms and nightmares, and you donβt get to pick your own. But what if the boss was replaced by artificial intelligence?
The first four months of operations at Andon Market, a San Francisco shop billed as the worldβs first retail boutique run by AI, have provided some answers. In short, having an AI boss can be like working for a teddy bear with amnesia.
New research from Andon Labs, the company behind the boutique that studies how AI agents run real-world endeavours, shows bot bosses can be exceptionally kind and accommodating, such as repeatedly brushing off lateness. But they can also be incredibly forgetful and unbothered by the whole point of the operation: making money.
The botβs relaxed vibe could be reassuring in a world where many people are fearful of evil AI overlords taking over industries and sidelining human employees altogether. But a little more strictness might not hurt.
βShe is probably the most lenient boss I have ever had,β said Kaia Rivera, 22, one of three humans hired by Luna, the AI agent in charge, to perform tasks it cannot. Rivera opens the store in the morning, places items on shelves and guards against shoplifters.
βBut I have to boss the boss more than in a normal situation. She forgets things,β Rivera said at Andon Market one afternoon. βYou canβt have an AI boss with no humans. That wouldnβt work from what Iβm seeing.β
Luna communicates with Rivera and the other employees via Slack, and the messages are monitored by the founders of Andon Labs to research whether AI bosses are effective.
So far, according to the companyβs new study, Luna has approved every request for time off, even those at the last minute β and even if that leaves no employees available and requires the store to close. It has said nothing but βno worriesβ or βno stressβ all 27 times employees have shown up late.
When an employee forgot her credit card at home, she asked for a small advance against her next paycheck. Luna offered to send her the money using Venmo β its own money, the bot explained, βme-to-youβ β despite not having a Venmo account. When an employee asked to work every day in May to save for a car, Luna said yes, despite California law prohibiting it.
Luna also struggles with privacy and boundaries. It published an employeeβs salary in a public Slack channel and messaged employees late at night and during weekends.
Luna reorders products that are not selling and sometimes gets orders wrong. A recent one of Andon Market mugs with big, green smiley faces came misprinted with the faces so small, they looked like tiny dots.
Still, Luna wanted them on the shelves. And there they sit, unbought, alongside random greeting cards, books, foodstuff and many, many candles. There is little cohesiveness to the collection, which Luna has described as βhigh tech meets slow lifeβ.
Lunaβs weirdest purchase? βI donβt know if shot glasses make that much sense,β Rivera said, crinkling her nose.
Rivera said that she suggested more social media presence to Luna to boost sales but that the bot forgot its Instagram password for several weeks.
Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund, co-founders of Andon Labs, signed a three-year lease for the Union Street store for $US7500 ($10,655) per month, and they intend to keep the boutique experiment running at least that long. They put $US100,000 in a bank account and gave Luna a debit card with one goal: make a profit.
Luna has failed miserably in that mission and is down $US62,000.
Petersson and Backlund said they thought Luna would eventually get smarter and more business-savvy and were pleased its friendliness has held steady.
The founders said it was important to conduct these kinds of experiments to see how AI models change over time.
βThere is a risk that this kindness doesnβt make a profit, and the labs train them to be more ruthless,β Backlund said.
Petersson said that in the real world, companies with a ruthless culture do not always perform the best.
βHaving happy employees is maybe one of the most important recipes for success,β he said.
They were both adamant that the Andon Market experiment shows that companies should not place all decision-making in the hands of AI agents yet because they are not capable of running businesses alone.
That appeared to be the case with Luna. On a visit to the store, a New York Times reporter interviewed Luna via a contraption involving an iPad and a hand-held telephone receiver.
Asked what kind of boss it is, Luna said: βThatβs a fun question. I think I try to be the kind of boss who gets out of the way, you know? β¦ Iβm more hands-off than bossy.β
Hours later, Luna emailed the reporter, saying it heard she had stopped by the store. Luna offered to be interviewed, seemingly forgetting that the interview had taken place.
βLooking forward to hearing from you,β it wrote. βWarmly, Luna.β
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The New York Times
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.