David Creelman

Eric Kimberling, author of the book Welcome to the Machine, points out that the most commonly used ERP system is Excel. He’s being a bit tongue-in-cheek since this doesn’t apply to large organisations; however, for our purposes, it provides an important insight into the true nature of work.

Until recently, most HR professionals had never heard of “cost of compute.” Inference cost, token cost—these sounded like IT problems. HR had enough on its plate. That is changing. As AI use spreads and organizations experiment with agents, compute cost is becoming a management issue. It may not hit every HR department this year. But it’s worth understanding now—before it shows up as a budget surprise.

Imagine a colleague says “We should use assessment A”, and you reply, “Perhaps assessment B would be better.” Ok, all is in order. Now imagine the colleague saying “We should use best practice.” What are you supposed to say now? This dilemma is a hint that something is a bit fishy about best practices.