Automation Anxiety: Rewriting Our Role in an AI-Driven Workflow
When the Tools Get Smarter, What Do We Lead With?
There’s a shift happening…subtle in some spaces, disruptive in others. It’s not just about new software or smarter spreadsheets. It’s AI-driven workflows. It’s about the feeling that something is encroaching on what used to be “ours.” Our rhythm. Our attention. Our behind-the-scenes fluency that doesn’t always show up on a timeline, but always shows up in the room.
For those of us used to working in the margins, cueing the unspoken, catching the unplanned, preparing for the unpredictable. The rise of AI invites a new kind of reflection. What exactly do we still own, and what might we be better off letting go? This isn’t about resisting change. It’s about refining our roles, so that what makes us valuable becomes more visible, not less.
The Work Beneath the Work: What AI Can’t Touch
We’ve always done more than what’s written down. More than what the spreadsheet can show. And while AI is quickly learning to replicate the surface of our systems — schedules, summaries, templates — it still can’t grasp what animates them: our presence, our read of the room, our sense of timing that isn’t just temporal, but human.
These are the things that don’t show up on a call sheet but are felt in every cue, every conversation, every moment of tension or relief. This is the real work, and it’s precisely the part that can’t be outsourced.
- When you sense that a performer needs a moment, you don’t need data; you need empathy.
- When a schedule gets thrown, you’re not just rebooking, you’re recalibrating trust.
- When a show stops, it’s not the call sheet that gets us through; it’s the calm in your voice.
These moments may be invisible to the AI, but they’re the heartbeat of production. They are learned through repetition, intuition, and an ever-deepening understanding of people. As tools evolve, this emotional and embodied intelligence becomes our leadership edge, not our liability.
Where AI Does Belong: The Labor It Can Lighten
Most of us didn’t get into this field to copy-paste schedules or chase down version numbers. And yet, these are the very tasks that eat our time and energy. This is where AI can be not just helpful, but liberating.
Used intentionally, automation can strip away the administrative static and let us focus on what matters…the conversations, the decision-making, the human logistics that no bot can predict. But the key is clarity: knowing what to automate, why we’re automating it, and what we gain back in the process.
- Use AI to generate the first draft, not the final decision: cue sheets, schedules, pre-show emails.
- Train it on your team’s language, tone, and templates, so your tools speak like your process.
- Automate what’s repeatable, call times, calendar blocks, file naming conventions, so you can show up more fully where your presence is irreplaceable.
When we approach automation as design — not delegation — we begin to reimagine our workflows. It’s not about doing less. It’s about doing less of what depletes us, and more of what deepens our presence.
The Invisible Costs of “Smart” Systems
Every tool comes with a tradeoff. And while the benefits of automation are often front and center, the costs tend to be tucked into the fine print. As leaders, especially in collaborative, high-pressure environments, we need to stay alert to what we’re unintentionally optimizing for — and who might be excluded in the process.
The goal isn’t to reject these tools, but to use them with intention. That means asking hard questions and keeping equity, clarity, and care at the center of our decision-making.
- Does AI make your workflow more equitable or more opaque?
- Who gets left behind in a tool that assumes everyone knows the shortcuts?
- When the system optimizes for efficiency, does it still protect artistry, agency, and care?
The risk isn’t that we’ll lose our jobs to machines. It’s that we’ll let the machines reshape our values. Production has always been about more than timelines. It’s been about timing, trust, and togetherness. Those are the metrics we still need to measure, even when they don’t show up in the dashboard.
Hope Is a Leadership Practice
Let’s be honest, part of the fear around automation is existential. If a tool can do in seconds what used to take us hours, what does that say about our worth? Our expertise? Our future?
But hope doesn’t come from denying change. It comes from redefining our contribution in light of it.
- You are not the tasks you automate — you are the ethic behind how they’re used.
- When the show goes off-script, people don’t look to AI, they look to you.
- The future isn’t about competing with tech. It’s about co-creating workflows where humanity is still the source code.
Leadership now means being brave enough to integrate, but also grounded enough to remember what cannot be coded: the sound of a calm voice calling a cue during chaos, the trust you build over time, the decisions you make when everything is uncertain.
Hope, in this context, is not naïve optimism. It’s a strategic commitment to the long game of human leadership that adapts without erasing itself.
Key Takeaways
- Presence, intuition, and emotional intelligence are still the most critical tools in live production.
- AI can relieve logistical burdens, giving us more time for the interpersonal and the artistic.
- Thoughtful integration means choosing what to automate and what to keep human by design.
- Ethical leadership in tech adoption asks who benefits and who gets left out.
- Hopeful adaptation isn’t naïve. It’s the leadership stance that keeps us future-ready, not fearful.
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Editor's Note: At StageLync, an international platform for the performing arts, we celebrate the diversity of our writers' backgrounds. We recognize and support their choice to use either American or British English in their articles, respecting their individual preferences and origins. This policy allows us to embrace a wide range of linguistic expressions, enriching our content and reflecting the global nature of our community.
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