From my time in the industry, I can say most are probably 25-75% overstaffed for their current requirements, but not for their current dreams. They invent projects they think will do something and hire for that, but it doesn’t align with the work they should or need to be doing. Their dreams aren’t always valid or rooted in reality within their experience and market niche.

So you get the wrong staff for the job you need to do because you staffed for what you wanted to do and end up with more people needing to do jobs they don’t have the knowledge or experience for trying to use AI to fill that gap.

You get an inefficient work force and end up having to cut the wrong things to make the line keep going up in unsustainable ways. The pressure to make line go up often gets in the way of making the line more consistent. And it often gets in the way of that dream that maybe could have worked if you gave it the time it needed to bake before giving up to make the board happy.