Six months in, the dashboards smile. Throughput is up, errors are down, and the Slack workspace is unusually peaceful. That last part is the warning sign.
What gets quieter
- Junior questions — they ask the model first, the senior never.
- Cross-team banter — fewer reasons to walk over and ask.
- Drafts being read together — everyone arrives with a finished version.
What to protect on purpose
Live review sessions. Pairing time. Mentorship that does not route through a chat window. The output improves on its own. The relationships do not.
The takeaway
AI gives you back hours. Spend a chunk of them on the human surface of the team, on purpose, or you will wake up at month nine with a fast, lonely company.
