Sam Altman's Brother's Company
In 2015, Jack Altman founded Lattice, a human resources software company based in San Francisco. Unlike typical employee performance platforms, Lattice shifted the focus of performance management from employee evaluation to career development, emphasizing performance reviews and goal management to help HR teams gather more information about employees.
With this advanced concept, Lattice gradually became one of the preferred HR tools for many companies. By 2022, Lattice's annual revenue exceeded $100 million, and it was listed in Inc.'s 500 fastest-growing private companies for two consecutive years, with a valuation of $3 billion.
At the end of 2023, Jack Altman announced his resignation as CEO to become executive chairman, with Sarah Franklin, who had worked at Salesforce for 15 years, taking over as the new CEO.
Last Tuesday, Sarah Franklin announced on the official blog that Lattice "made AI history" by "becoming the first company to manage AI 'digital employees' in a transparent and accountable way by creating digital employee profiles."
Has "AI Employee" Become a Reality Rather Than Just a Concept?
Sarah Franklin pointed out that AI is changing the workforce, not just as a tool but as an entity working alongside humans. Lattice's survey showed that in a "Human Resources" community of over 22,000 HR leaders, more than half said they planned to hire digital employees.
Lattice plans to be the first company to establish formal employee profiles for digital employees. Digital employees will be securely onboarded, trained, assigned goals, performance metrics, appropriate system access, and even have a manager - just like any human employee.
Sarah Franklin shared this blog post on LinkedIn, calling for everyone to join this journey. However, many users left negative comments on this post, forcing her to close the comment section.
3 Days Later, Lattice Decided to Stop the Plan
After strong negative reactions online, Lattice announced 3 days later that they would no longer proceed with the project.
This incident once again sparked discussions about whether AI can replace humans. In March 2023, a Goldman Sachs report predicted that AI could replace or reduce up to 300 million jobs in the US and Europe. However, Ronnie Sheth, CEO of Senen Group, revealed that many company CEOs believe AI will not replace humans. Even if AI technology might replace some assembly line work, administrative and analytical tasks, positions related to branding and management would not be affected.
Ronnie Sheth pointed out that a balance needs to be struck between readjusting the workforce scale and formulating policies to ensure AI is used for the benefit of humans, rather than simply depriving people of their livelihoods.