Meaningful Digital Evolution (MDE)
In prior research, the burden of dealing with the consequences of digital transformation has often been placed on the individual. Our view is that digital transformation is a systemic challenge which requires system-level solutions.
Our project contributes to the European Industry 5.0 initiative; empowering workers, addressing the evolving skills and training needs of employees, and increasing the competitiveness of European industry. Our research is funded by Business Finland.
Table of contents
Ctrl C + Ctrl V: What people want AI to do?
One person came up to talk with us at our stand during Business Networking Day 2025 and they told a story we can’t stop thinking about. In their company, everyone has a personal AI assistant that can do all sorts of work for them. Employees send these assistants to mandatory, weekly mass meetings, where the AI will then take notes, summarize, and send the recap back. The only problem? None of the notes from the assistants match each other.
Although the example was funny, it also shows a dystopian example of where we could be heading with workplace AI. People send their digital assistants to a meeting, where they talk with each other, while people get to do the “real” work. This doesn’t mean that the technology itself is bad, but more so raises the question of how we’re using it.
That’s what we at the Meaningful Digital Evolution (MDE) project have set out to explore. We wanted to use the opportunity of attending the event to ask people questions and start conversations about the future of work. With a short survey, we asked visitors three questions:
- Which 3 of your work tasks would you most like to hand over to AI?
- What would you do with the time you saved?
- Which your team's or workplace's process do you think would benefit most from the use of AI?
Automate the boring, not the meaningful
Across all responses, one thing stood out: people don’t want AI to take over the meaningful tasks that require decision-making and critical thinking. Tasks that people mostly wanted rid of were repetitive and manual, the so-called “ctrl c + ctrl v” tasks, like filling out forms or applications.
As the event was hosted by the University of Jyväskylä, there was a variety of people attending: teachers, researchers as well as employees and managers from various companies. Despite their differences, the answers remained similar. For example, a researcher would like to use AI for summarizing certain articles or find the most relevant information from a text, whereas an engineer would like to use AI for extracting key details from a technical standard.
These ideas show that people don’t want to distance themselves from their work but would rather use AI as an assistant or even as a secretary. With so many fragmented systems and tools, simply finding the right information can take a lot of time. If used thoughtfully, AI could help with some of this work. If not, it just brings more systems and tools for people to get lost in.
“Looks like you have a busy week”
Beyond what people want AI to do, many also criticized the way AI is being forced into their work, even in places where people don’t want to use it. One person explained frustration with their work that is heavily filled with meetings. At the beginning of each week Outlook’s AI then tells them, “Looks like you have a busy week coming up!” as if that somehow makes the workload any easier.
Digitalization was supposed to simplify work, but for many, it’s done quite the opposite. All these little interruptions, different systems, the chatbots, suggestions, auto-summaries and -replies that no one asked for, quietly add to the workload instead of streamlining it.
If AI could give you time back — what would you do with it?
Still, people thought that in some cases AI could speed up their work. The responses in our survey showed that they’d spend the time on deep work, learning, or creativity. Others simply said they’d rest, take a walk, talk to colleagues, or finally have time to think. Many of the answers were hopeful and showed that people want to do “human” things.
Sadly enough, some responses showed that people would use the time to do the work that they don’t have enough time to do now. It’s a quiet reminder of the pressure and stress that people feel in their work. The environment that we’re working in is so busy, that even the idea of “freed-up time” feels like a chance to do more work.
Either way, the answers showed that people aren’t dreaming of doing nothing — they’re dreaming of doing something meaningful, especially in a time where we seem to have limited space for that.
Beyond ease: the cost of AI
While it’s easy to get excited about how AI might save us time and make us more efficient, it also requires us to stop and think about the effects of it.
The growing infrastructure behind AI systems requires enormous amounts of energy and water. In some parts of the world, data centers have already begun to strain local water resources. This is where the MDE project becomes especially relevant. If we really want to build a future where digital tools support meaningful, human-centered work, we must also think about the world behind the scenes. Are we creating systems that people truly want to use, or ones that quietly consume us and our resources?
So, what would you let AI do for you?
Our small survey doesn’t represent everyone and all opinions, but it offers a small glimpse into how people think about AI at work. The discussions and the survey at the Business Networking Day provided both reassurance in the work we do, as well as good starting ground for our research.
AI can take notes in your meetings, but it can’t tell you why the meeting matters. It can help you work faster, but it can’t decide what’s worth doing in the first place. Without the right understanding, AI might just sit there, talking to itself. For now, the most important thing seems to be the idea that we should not develop technology for technology’s sake, but rather find places where people want to use it.
As we continue figuring these things out, we would love to hear your thoughts. What would you let AI do for you? How do you want technology to shape your work, time, and values? Do the ideas from our survey reflect your feelings or is there something that we missed? Talk to us!
(Written by Iida Tuuva)
References
Rao, D. (2024, August 30). AI is cannibalizing itself. And creating more AI. Theweek; The Week. https://theweek.com/tech/ai-cannibalization-model-collapse
Camillo, A. (2025, April 24). How Big Tech’s Data Centers Are Draining Water-Stressed Regions - Impakter. Impakter. https://impakter.com/how-big-techs-data-centers-are-draining-water-stre…
Fleury, M. (2025, July 9). “I can’t drink the water” - life next to a US data centre. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o
Meaningful Digital Evolution (MDE). (2025, August). University of Jyväskylä. https://www.jyu.fi/en/projects/meaningful-digital-evolution-mde
Yrityspäivä 2025. (2025, October). Jyväskylän yliopisto. https://www.jyu.fi/fi/tapahtumat/yrityspaiva-2025
