Boss wants me to work in 'parallel'

Summary

Parallel work with AI agents creates new pressure on data engineers expected to deliver more output in less time.

Pressure to work in parallel with AI

A data engineer describes on Reddit how their manager expects them to handle multiple projects simultaneously using AI agents. While agentic capabilities speed up large projects, pressure builds to immediately fill freed time with more work. The discussion touches on the fundamental question of how AI productivity gains are distributed.

Recognizable pattern in BI teams

This phenomenon plays broadly across data and BI teams. When AI tools speed up work processes, managers increase expectations proportionally. The risk is that quality and sustainability of solutions decrease when engineers constantly operate at maximum capacity. The human cognitive load of context switching is underestimated.

Setting boundaries

Communicate clearly about realistic capacity, including code review, testing, and documentation. Make visible how much time you spend on AI supervision and error correction. Propose investing productivity gains in quality improvement rather than volume increase.