A new internal study from Anthropic shows that AI tools are boosting productivity inside the company while simultaneously eroding collaboration, weakening skill development and fueling concerns about long-term job relevance.
AI Productivity Surge Reshapes Developer Workflows
The research surveyed 132 engineers and researchers, conducted 53 interviews and analyzed how the tool is changing daily work.
The company found that employees felt more "full-stack" and significantly more productive.
Twenty-seven percent of Claude-assisted tasks were projects that would not have happened otherwise, such as scalable builds or data dashboards considered too time-consuming without AI support.
Workers also reported that they could "fully delegate" up to 20% of their workload to Claude, especially repetitive or "boring" tasks that were easy to verify.
Engineers Warn Of Lost Mentorship, Skill Atrophy
But the productivity gains came with major concerns. "Some found that more AI collaboration meant they collaborated less with colleagues," the study noted.
One employee said, "I like working with people, and it's sad that I need them less now."
Several respondents voiced fear that great technical skills could erode.
"When producing output is so easy and fast, it gets harder and harder to actually take the time to learn something," one engineer said.
Others questioned their future relevance. "I feel optimistic in the short term, but in the long term I think AI will end up doing everything and make me and many others irrelevant," one employee told researchers.
AI Leaders Divided On Automation's Impact On Jobs
In September, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said artificial intelligence was likely to replace up to 40% of work tasks in the near future, arguing that AI would reshape tasks more than entire jobs.
He predicted some roles would transform, new ones would emerge and others would disappear as AI handled a larger share of daily work.
That same month, Kevin O'Leary pushed back against fears of widespread job loss, saying AI was creating better opportunities by removing repetitive tasks.
He noted that more than 50 of his companies used AI to cut costs and boost productivity, comparing the shift to past technological transitions like television and radio.
In August, ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) CEO Bill McDermott said AI had already begun transforming corporate operations, with AI agents managing IT support, customer inquiries and security tasks around the clock.
He said the company slowed hiring for what he called "soul-crushing jobs" and predicted more companies would reorganize around AI-driven workflows.