Future human work will shift from engineering to AI alignment—keeping autonomous systems on task rather than building them from scratch.

An essay argues that as AI becomes more agentic (capable of autonomous decision-making), humans will be increasingly needed to ensure AI systems stay aligned with human goals—a role analogous to middle management oversight rather than direct technical work.

The author notes that generative AI has dramatically decreased the cost of output, resulting in what is called 'slop'—AI-generated content of questionable quality now overwhelming multiple domains. Over one-third of new websites are estimated to be AI-generated, and over half of internet traffic is believed to be AI.

The essay suggests that over the next few years, human work will transition from technical engineering into alignment work, focused on verifying AI output rather than creating it—a shift the author compares to the seemingly pointless bureaucratic oversight depicted in the film Office Space.