A valuable team member

AI is often described as a valuable team member. It never gets tired. It’s always available. It doesn’t complain. It doesn’t need vacation, a raise, or feedback. It delivers. At the push of a button. At any hour. In any quantity.

That’s remarkable. Not because of what it says about AI. But because of what it says about us.

The ideal team member is one without needs. No sleep, no objection, no exhaustion, no will of its own. Available, capable, silent. That’s not the description of a partner. It’s the description of a servant.

And nobody seems to notice what this reveals about our idea of teamwork.

When you describe a team member and the first quality is “never gets tired,” your problem isn’t technology. Your problem is that you expect people never to get tired. AI doesn’t become the ideal because it’s so good. It becomes the ideal because people can’t meet the standard we’ve silently set.

I’ve worked in teams where the best moments didn’t come from efficiency. They came from friction. From someone who said: This doesn’t make sense. From an unplanned pause. From an objection that blew up the entire plan. Those weren’t mistakes. That was the team’s value. Not the delivering, but the correcting.

A tool that never disagrees doesn’t deliver better results. It delivers confirmed results. The difference is the one between a mirror and a counterpart. A mirror shows you what you want to see. A counterpart shows you what you don’t.

The metaphor goes further. AI as colleague, as assistant, as sparring partner. The language gets more and more human. But the expectations stay mechanical. No sparring partner who knocks you down. No assistant who says: I’m not sure. A colleague without opinions. A partner without resistance.

What bothers me isn’t the AI. What bothers me is the image of humans that sits behind it.

In every company I’ve advised, there was the same unspoken desire: employees who function. No trouble, no resistance, no absences. The ideal machine in human form. AI now promises that literally. And suddenly what was always there becomes visible.

The sentence “AI is a valuable team member” says more about the company than about the AI. It says: We want output. Not engagement. Not friction. Not the uncomfortable colleague who happens to be right. We want someone who delivers without asking questions.

That works for routine tasks. For everything standardized and repeatable. For everything else, it’s a loss you don’t see right away because it feels like a gain. Less friction. Less discussion. Less resistance. That feels productive. Until the decisions get shallower and nobody knows why.

A valuable team member disagrees with you when you’re wrong. It gets tired when it’s worked too much. It has a perspective you didn’t order. That’s not a bug. That’s the value.

The question nobody asks: What do we lose when we get what we always wished for?