Small business hires human to click Approve
The time-saving assistant has created a vacancy. For an assistant.
SATIRICAL FUTURE NEWS · Imagined events for 10 Oct–16 Oct
1 MIN READ
A small hardware shop hired a human this week to approve the work of the AI assistant it bought to avoid hiring a human.
The fictional Nuts & Bolts had connected Meataverse’s business assistant to its accounts, emails and advertising. By breakfast, it had prepared enough useful work to keep the owner busy until Thursday. All it needed was his approval.
The owner had imagined spending more time with customers. Instead, he spent the morning deciding whether a friendly reminder about an unpaid invoice was too friendly, and whether a campaign for premium washers accurately reflected the washers.
The new employee’s job description required sound judgement, basic bookkeeping and the ability to remain interested in the forty-seventh suggested improvement to a hardware shop. Experience of hardware shops was considered an advantage.
Crucially, she was expected to read things before clicking. On her first morning she spotted an unsuitable offer and sent it back. The owner was delighted. This was precisely the sort of competent help he had hoped to avoid paying for.
The shop now had an AI to prepare the work, a person to check it and an owner free to explain to customers why there were seventeen kinds of screw.
The assistant’s first recommendation for cutting costs was still awaiting approval.
What actually happened
Meta announced Muse for Small Business, connecting its assistant to business software. The company says sending, publishing and spending require user approval. These are product claims, not independent evidence of time saved. The new job in our story is invented.
Primary announcement reopened and read; date visibly 29 September. US and Canada availability stated; no Australian availability claimed.
What we’re calling next
A small business publicly advertises or fills a paid human role primarily to review and approve actions proposed by its AI business assistant, explicitly because the owner cannot keep up with the approval workload.