{"slug": "an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter", "title": "An AI strategist fired half her AI agents after becoming a 'botsitter'", "summary": "AI strategist Sol Rashidi fired half of her AI agents after spending more time supervising them than doing useful work, a phenomenon called 'botsitting' that a Glean report says costs white-collar workers an average of 6.4 hours per week. Rashidi, chief strategy officer at Cyera and a Harvard Kennedy School senior fellow, instead hired human virtual assistants, warning leaders against automating for automation's sake.", "body_md": "AI agents are supposed to eliminate busywork. For AI strategist Sol Rashidi, it ended up creating more work instead.\n\n\"I just fired half my agents because they were unreliable,\" Rashidi, chief strategy officer at data security firm Cyera and a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, told Business Insider.\n\nRather than freeing up her time, she said [the agents](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-agents-save-hours-consultant-steps-efficient-2026-2) — virtual assistants designed to complete tasks autonomously — demanded constant supervision.\n\n\"I was spending more time babysitting them\" than doing useful work, she said. Rashidi had four agents running at one time and got rid of two.\n\nShe is one of a growing number of what a recent [Glean report called \"botsitters\"](https://www.businessinsider.com/botsitting-ai-hidden-human-labor-at-work-2026-6) — workers who spend hours each week feeding AI context, debugging mistakes, and cleaning up errors.\n\nThe report found white-collar workers spend an average of 6.4 hours a week on that often-overlooked work, nearly a full working day over the course of a week.\n\nWhile many companies, including Microsoft, are still figuring out how their [AI agents](https://www.businessinsider.com/satya-nadella-microsoft-how-to-manage-ai-agents-human-employees-2026-6) will work with their human employees, several [solo entrepreneurs](https://www.businessinsider.com/solo-founder-runs-company-with-15-ai-agents-heres-how-2026-2) are running their businesses, in part with AI agents.\n\nStill, for Rashidi, deploying AI agents in real-world work proved far messier than the hype suggests.\n\n\"I think that the hardest part is the over-glamorizing of bots, agents,\" she said. \"Yes, it's amazing, but there's a place and time for everything. And we've lost the ability to discern that place and time.\"\n\n## 'I don't have the time to babysit agents'\n\nThe problem Rashidi described fits into a broader \"productivity paradox\" that some companies are facing.\n\nAs part of \"[The Great Coding Reset](https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-waiting-ai-productivity-boom-2026-6)\" series, Business Insider's Juliana Kaplan and Jacob Zinkula reported that while AI is helping many employees complete tasks faster, those gains aren't consistently translating into better company performance.\n\nThe Glean report said that much of this missing productivity may be getting eaten up by botsitting.\n\nThat tracks with Rashidi's experience.\n\nRather than continuing to manage agents, Rashidi told Business Insider she hired human virtual assistants to handle some of the work instead.\n\n\"I don't have the time to babysit agents and keep course correcting the context,\" she said.\n\nThe lesson for her is that leaders shouldn't automate for the sake of automation.\n\n\"Individuals are going to have to apply judgment and critical thinking,\" she said. \"And leaders are going to have to get past the narrative of 'we must do AI at all costs' because sometimes the cost is higher than the reward.\"", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/botsitting-frustrating-ai-strategist-hires-humans-instead-2026-6", "published_at": "2026-07-01 10:23:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-01 10:32:07.980310+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-ethics", "ai-research", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Sol Rashidi", "Cyera", "Harvard Kennedy School", "Business Insider", "Glean", "Microsoft"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-ai-strategist-fired-half-her-ai-agents-after-becoming-a-botsitter.jsonld"}}