After the Whole Company Replaced Me with AI, They Begged Me to Come Back

On the day he was laid off, Jiang Heng met a man sitting in a daze on the steps outside the company, clutching his tie. The man said AI could do a day's work in three seconds. What had his past ten years been worth? Jiang Heng said, "You've been clutching that tie for fifteen minutes. What are you thinking about? This AI can't even ask." His exit evaluation report said: "Job replaceability: 100%." Jiang Heng didn't buy it. He'd seen too many people labeled "replaceable" by the System: a driver who'd kept nine years of accident logs no one had ever read, a nurse who'd written eight years of diagnostic notes no one knew about, and a customer service rep who'd spent five years listening to what customers cared about, though no one else did. AI couldn't learn these things. He was going to find them and put a price on them.