The AI Flagged Your Best Engineer for Cuts: Alisa Reznik on Why People Decisions Stay Human

A tracking system did exactly what it was built to do. It showed one senior engineer closing seventy percent fewer tickets than everyone around him, and the CEO put him on the list of people to cut. Alisa Reznik made him go have the conversation first. The engineer was spending his days unblocking the rest of the team, which is why their numbers looked so good and his looked so bad. Alisa spent nearly two decades managing engineers, worked with more than fifty tech companies, and ran operations as a COO across offices in three countries before leaving to build her own practice, Leadify. She uses AI all day and she is clear about where it does not belong. ## In this episode The one category of work she refuses to automate, and the rule she uses to decide. The ticket dashboard that recommended firing the most valuable person on the team. Why "what is the best AI tool for my business" is the wrong question, and what to ask instead. The CTO who prepared for a hard feedback conversation, then sent the notes over Slack. Ten hours a week, and the ordinary CEO work that gets those hours back. Her test for anything you are thinking of handing over: how big is the mistake you can afford. The Friday deployment that wiped a client's CRM on Monday morning. What young founders get wrong when they treat Claude as the person who knows. ## Timestamps 00:00 What this show is, and today's guest 01:10 Why she picked "do not delegate everything to AI" 01:57 Fifty plus tech companies, and the thing that breaks the same way everywhere 04:03 Remote versus onsite, and how she runs engineering teams either way 05:41 The first process she refuses to fully automate 07:42 The tracking system that flagged the wrong engineer for cuts 10:46 AI does not save you, it amplifies what is already there 11:02 "I feel redundant, AI can do what I do" 12:48 The wrong question every engineer is asking right now 15:48 Where AI actually worked, and the ten hours a week it gave back 19:24 Moving faster versus avoiding a hard call 20:08 A better question than "what tool should I buy" 22:36 What young founders are still missing 25:10 The feedback conversation that got sent over Slack 29:00 The four zones, and where AI belongs in each 30:05 The rule: how big is the error you can afford 32:44 The Friday deploy that erased a client's data 36:30 Fixing the system and the person running it 37:36 Where to find Alisa ## About Alisa Reznik Fractional COO and executive advisor, and the founder of Leadify. Nearly twenty years managing engineers, more than fifty tech companies, and operations across three countries. She mentors at Founder Institute and writes about operations and leadership every week. Find Alisa on LinkedIn. Listen: https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-operating-system-show Be a guest: https://crm.frontrangesystems.com/discovery