AI promised efficiency, delivered chaos

Three years after Axios's Smart Brevity framework became standard in corporate communications, the founders say AI has made everything worse. Offices are drowning in more decks, longer emails, and busywork that looks productive but isn't.

Everyone thinks they're smart now

Jim VandeHei says the core problem is that people who never made presentations before are suddenly generating them with AI, creating massive review burdens. Incoming pitches have multiplied both internally and externally.

“My team is drowning, everyone thinks they're smart now”

The trap of work-like activity

Mike Allen says humans naturally complexify everything when left to their own devices. AI amplifies this by making it easy to generate verbose content that feels productive but creates no real value.

“Everybody's more verbose”

People aren't lazy, they're confused

VandeHei pushes back on the idea that AI enables laziness. The real problem is that people can't distinguish real work from busywork anymore, especially when AI makes generating content so easy.

“People are not being lazy or stupid”

Companies are clumsy with AI

Even when AI technology is excellent, VandeHei says companies struggle to implement it properly. Privacy laws, security systems, and existing data pools create friction that turns powerful tools into chaos.

The monthly audit fix

VandeHei's solution is recurring audits, done monthly or even weekly. Ask three questions: What do you actually need to do? What can you stop doing? What can you automate?

You control only one-sixth of your life

Allen cites Harvard research showing that of 168 hours per week, sleep and work consume 90 to 100. People spend half their remaining time thinking about unrelated things, leaving them in control of only about 28 hours.

Two words that change everything

Allen's personal simplification strategy is simple: say 'I'm booked' to any invitation. No apology, no explanation needed. If your gut says 'eh, I probably should,' that's a no.

“I'm booked”

Successful people say no constantly

While researching the book, the founders discovered that many successful people never accept obligations outside of family and work. When they do commit, they fully commit and make it worthwhile.

“No is a complete sentence”

Work and life aren't separate

VandeHei doesn't distinguish between work and personal obligations. They're all just life. This unified approach removes the mental burden of managing two separate systems.

Roy Schwartz's dyslexia insight

Schwartz, who runs Axios HQ, credits his dyslexia with teaching him to distill complex material into simple, structured points. Writing down goals gave him permission to decline opportunities without guilt.

Organizations run by default, not design

Schwartz says teams are paralyzed because no one has given them permission to say no to recurring meetings. The fix is simple: make everything done by design, not default.

“Everything in an organization is usually done by default, and you want it done by design”

The 1990s were slower, not better

VandeHei and Allen remember the 1990s as genuinely slower, not just through nostalgia. People today carry more cognitive burden from infinite daily inputs from a million directions.

“You're getting hit with an infinite amount all day, every single day from a million directions”

AI's effect on how we think

With test scores declining and AI absorbing more mental life, VandeHei and Schwartz offer a split diagnosis. For college students, minimize AI use to let your brain develop. For experienced workers, the calculus flips.

Young workers: master your specific job

VandeHei's advice for people entering the workforce is to quickly identify the five things the smartest people use AI for in your specific role. You don't need to be an AI expert, just competent at your job.

Gen Z interns are accidental AI experts

VandeHei watched his sons and their friends become treated as AI consultants at summer internships simply because they were willing to experiment. They're not savants, but they're comfortable trying things others won't.

“We're treated like we're savants, but we're fine in AI”

Axios HQ turns profitable on simplicity

Schwartz's AI-powered internal communications spinoff recently hit profitability on roughly twenty million dollars in annualized revenue. He credits the same simplification principles from the book.