The AI excuse: how tech spending became the perfect cover for cutting costs
Tech companies blame AI for layoffs, but the real culprit is reckless overspending on infrastructure. Why this pattern matters for everyone, not just tech workers.
Workplace articles
As a Wall Street Journal-quoted former business editor and EA to the Chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, I write about workplace trends, technology and career development.
The AI con: how politicians sell Silicon Valley hype whilst public expertise crumbles
Scientists challenge von der Leyen’s AI claims as leaders from Brussels to Westminster bet public services on marketing hype rather than evidence. What’s being lost whilst billions flow to private contractors?
Workplace disengagement and AI: The cruel irony of building systems that diminish everyone
A Perkonomics report reveals that whilst 69% of employers think AI is improving employee experience, only 38% of workers feel more valued by it. With workplace disengagement at high levels, is it any wonder the systems make users feel the same?
Follow the money: Why £3.35bn government AI spending ignores the people who need it most
New data reveals the UK government has spent £3.35bn on AI since 2018, with the Met Office getting £1bn for weather forecasting whilst the departments serving vulnerable people, Treasury and DWP, sit in the bottom three. The spending patterns tell us everything about whose problems we think AI should solve.
When AI meets vulnerability: What I learned between Whitehall and the Money Advice Trust
After delivering a keynote on trauma-informed content design and reflecting on government’s AI ambitions for grant management, I’m troubled by the gap between efficiency promises and vulnerability realities. Most people using public services are in crisis. If our AI can’t recognise that, we’re building expensive barriers, not solutions.
AI in public services: The machines won’t save us unless we tell them how
Tony Blair says AI in public services will revolutionise government. But Adrie van der Luijt has heard it all before and warns that without investment in people, tools and trauma-informed practice, nothing will change.
What the Public Design Evidence Review misses: Micro-trauma, emotional safety and the real needs of real people
The Public Design Evidence Review sets out to define the future of design in public services, but leaves out the emotional and psychological realities of its users. In a post-lockdown world where cognitive overload is rising and trust is falling, trauma-informed design isn’t a luxury. It’s a baseline.
Vulnerability and trauma-informed approaches: a talk on micro-trauma and compliance with the FCA Consumer Duty
Vulnerability and trauma-informed approaches, the full text of Senior Content Designer and Strategist Adrie van der Luijt’s talk for the Money Advice Trust’s Vulnerabity Academy to senior executives in the UK financial services sector on micro-trauma-informed content strategy and compliance.