A century ago, Le Corbusier looked at chaotic industrial cities and concluded the problem was design.

Cities, he argued, should work like machines.

Organize housing, traffic, work, and recreation into clean systems, and the city would function more efficiently. Movement would improve. Life would become more rational.

In many ways, the idea worked.

We’re seeing something similar with AI.

Work is being broken down into tasks.
Tasks into workflows.
Workflows into systems.

The assumption feels familiar: If we design the machine correctly, work will run better.

And in some ways, it will.

But history offers a warning.

When cities were treated purely as machines, something human got lost. Streets became systems. Neighborhoods became zones. Life became optimized, but often less alive.

AI may do the same to work.

The opportunity isn’t just building better systems.

It’s remembering that systems optimize work. Humans create value.