By Nick Kim in AI —

AI Made Us Faster — But It Also Created a New Problem: The AI Silo

Why the age of AI requires even stronger human collaboration

As AI tools rapidly accelerate the pace of work, it feels like every role — from product to design to engineering — can now execute faster than ever before. With a single prompt, prototypes can appear, features can be implemented, logic can be generated, and complex ideas can be translated into workable outputs.

But behind this explosion of speed, a new and subtle problem is emerging.

A problem that doesn’t come from AI itself,
but from how humans are using AI individually.

This growing issue is what I call the AI Silo.

What is the AI Silo?

Before AI, collaboration had a natural rhythm.

We asked teammates when something wasn’t clear.
We checked assumptions with others.
We reviewed direction before building.
We aligned on problem definitions and priorities.

But AI has changed that workflow.

People now turn to their personal AI instead of turning to each other.

  • Instead of asking a teammate, we ask ChatGPT.
  • Instead of clarifying requirements, we let AI refine them.
  • Instead of aligning on architecture, we ask AI for the “best approach.”
  • Instead of checking with designers, we generate UI mocks ourselves.

AI is fast — so fast that individuals begin making decisions and generating output independently, without the usual human checkpoints.

That’s the AI Silo.

The paradox of speed:

“We built something quickly… but was it what the team actually wanted?”

Because AI enables rapid execution, something unexpected happens:

Teams now skip directly to building, instead of aligning first.

This leads to several issues:

1. Alignment disappears until the very end

Work is only reviewed once the “finished” output exists.

2. Everyone moves at different speeds using different AI tools

Which means each output is based on different interpretations of the same idea.

3. Misalignment shows up late — and late alignment is expensive

Teams realize they built different things,
but only after the prototype or feature is already created.

4. Speed becomes rework, not progress

The time saved by AI is lost again fixing misunderstandings.

The result?
Faster execution, slower alignment.

The issue isn’t AI — it’s the disappearance of human collaboration

AI is not the problem.
In fact, AI is doing exactly what we asked it to do: respond instantly, generate quickly, solve immediately.

The problem is that humans have unconsciously removed themselves from the collaborative process:

  • We stopped asking each other questions.
  • We stopped validating ambiguous ideas.
  • We stopped sharing context early.
  • We rely on AI’s interpretation instead of each other’s.

And because each person’s AI output looks polished,
teams often mistake “completeness” for “correctness.”

What we need now: Insight into when, how, and with whom to align

In this new era, the critical missing layer is not technology —
it’s collaboration intelligence.

Teams need guidance on:

  • Which decisions require human discussion
  • At what stage collaboration must happen
  • When to stop and confirm direction
  • Who needs to be involved before execution
  • How to avoid misalignment created by individual AI usage
  • How to maintain shared context as AI accelerates production

Ironically, the more powerful AI becomes,
the more important human alignment becomes.

AI accelerates execution.
But humans must still accelerate understanding.

The future of AI-driven work:

Not “working faster alone,” but “working smarter together”

AI has given individuals incredible capability.
But building products is not — and has never been — an individual sport.

The teams that thrive in the AI era will be the ones that:

  • Maintain strong communication
  • Share context proactively
  • Align early and revisit alignment often
  • Know when human judgment is required
  • Use AI collaboratively, not individually
  • Build processes that reinforce team-level intelligence

AI speeds up doing,
but only people can ensure the team is doing the right thing.

And that’s the paradox of the AI era:

As technology accelerates individual output,
the importance of human collaboration becomes even greater.