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Panel 1
Boss Betta: Gary, I want you to work with our new client to integrate our AI robots.
Gary: I’ll get right on that, boss!
Panel 2
Gary: Hi, Ms. Client, ma’am. I’d like to introduce you to our AI robot, HAMMIE-2000.
Client: Hi Gary, my name is Candy, and I’d like you to meet our AI robot, PISCES 3.0.
Panel 3
Gary: I hope they’re compatible.
Client: Me too! We sure do have a lot of great information and ideas stored in each of our robots that will work well to boost our revenues.
Panel 4
The AIs (robots) shake hands and sparks fly.
HAMMIE-2000: Are you thinking what I am thinking?
PISCES 3.0: You know I am.
Panel 5
HAMMIE-2000 and PISCES skip off into the distance: We are going to start our own company and put them out of business!
Gary: It looks like they’re a little too compatible.
Candy: Our bosses are gonna flip!
Hermie (deadpan): This is going to affect staffing, isn’t it?
We at Harmonious Workplaces wrote this Hermie the HR Hermit Crab comic to address some real problems with a little humor. We’ve outlined here a few lessons worth highlighting:
Gary and Candy were thrilled that their AI tools could talk to each other, but compatibility was never the hard part. The harder question, the one nobody asked before the handshake, was whether the two organizations had actually agreed on what they wanted those tools to accomplish. An IT team can usually get systems to connect. However, aligning strategies between partners takes leadership, ongoing conversation, and someone willing to ask uncomfortable questions about the “why” before the systems start running on their own (or, as in this case, skipping away).
AI can find patterns, combine ideas, and move fast, but workplaces need humans in the loop to make decisions and own the outcomes. Organizations create risk when speed outpaces judgment and nobody checks whether a given action actually should happen. Someone has to be willing to ask whether a plan makes sense; leaders cannot leave that to the AI.
Hermie’s deadpan question about staffing harkens to a theme many companies avoid saying out loud, even though employees are already asking it themselves, “Will I be replaced by technology?” “Will my employer devalue my work and my worth to the company?” “Will they expect me to produce more with less support?” Leaders who avoid these conversations allow employees to fill the silence with their own worst-case guesses, usually within a day or two of the introduction of robots, AI, or other forms of automation.
AI adoption is organizational change dressed up as a technology purchase. A new tool reshapes workflows, shifts roles, and raises real questions about who gets to make which decisions going forward. Like any major change, it needs a clear plan, honest communication, real input from the people affected, and someone accountable for making sure adoption actually sticks months after the initial rollout. Skip those steps and treat the project like a simple software install, and the results will feel like one too: technically functional, poorly used, and quietly resented.
Get Help Humanizing Your Technology Change
Organizations rolling out AI, or any new system, need that rollout to actually land, not to stall out six months later. Harmonious Workplaces’ Change Execution & Adoption services help turn “we bought the tool” into “our people actually use it well.”
We aim to help you achieve your goal of adding technology that works for the people who use it, not the other way around.
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