Human Wisdom for Artificial Intelligence
Part 4 — Efficiency for Whom?
Efficiency is not a bad thing. Businesses, nonprofits, churches, schools, and communities all have limited time and resources. Reducing waste and improving productivity can be good stewardship.
But Franciscan thought asks a second question: efficiency for whom?
In Brother Robot, Carbajo-Núñez critiques an economic logic that reduces people to consumers, productive resources, or data points. In contrast, he presents a more relational vision of economic life grounded in reciprocity, trust, cooperation, and human dignity.
Suppose an AI system saves 5,000 hours of labor each year. That sounds excellent. But what happens next? Are employees freed from repetitive work so they can serve customers better, mentor colleagues, create, think, and solve harder problems? Are they retrained? Does the organization become more humane? Or does the entire benefit move upward while the disruption moves downward?
Project Sapier does not reject efficiency. It asks leaders to evaluate efficiency within a larger picture of human flourishing. A faster organization that destroys trust is not flourishing. A more productive organization that gradually deskills its people may be creating long-term weakness.
The better question is not simply, “How many people can this replace?” It is, “How can this technology help people do more meaningful and distinctly human work?”
That is a different kind of ROI.
