Last night I had one of those bizarre dreams you can’t shake off the next morning.

In the dream, a client came in for what seemed like a normal meeting. But before we could even begin, HR called him in. He came back pale, holding a message that sounded more like dystopian science fiction than corporate policy.

He was told that from now on he had to share part of his salary with AI. Not in the abstract “AI is everywhere” way, but literally. Not because he had underperformed. Not because of cost-cutting. But because the AI that his company relied on had filed a request for a “salary increase,” an actual expense line, demanding resources. Energy for its servers. Money for its upgrades. Cloud space for its expansion. And to cover these costs it had recommended that the only way to pay for this was to cut my client’s salary.

In the dream, the logic was chillingly simple? “AI is competing for your job. To keep it running, we must reallocate your compensation.”

Imagine that for a second. Not just a machine replacing a human, but a machine negotiating successfully for its “salary increase” and cut of your paycheck.

The Uneasy Mirror: AI as a colleague

As strange as this dream was, it pointed to a real shift already underway. For decades, technology has been described as a tool. Something we use. But AI is inching into a new category: a presence that feels less like a hammer in our hand and more like a colleague across the table.

It saves us time, produces efficiencies, and expands possibilities. It’s becoming a presence in boardrooms, strategy sessions, and even creative conversations. Tasks that were once exclusively “human” now sit in a strange middle ground.

And that forces us to wrestle with new questions:

• If AI creates measurable value, who owns that value?
• Will compensation models eventually reflect not only human output but machine contribution?
• How do we define fairness in a workplace where humans and algorithms “collaborate” on the same tasks?

The Dream as a Warning

Dreams exaggerate, but they also reveal truths we hesitate to say out loud. Mine condensed today’s quiet anxieties into a single surreal scene: HR adjusting pay slips not because of underperformance, but because the algorithm down the hall needed an energy upgrade.

It left me with a clear thought: the future of work isn’t only about efficiency. It’s about humanity. If technology becomes another “employee,” how do we make sure humans remain more than line items to be trimmed for server bills?

The Hidden Costs

AI isn’t free. Behind every seemingly magical answer is an infrastructure hungry for electricity, server space, and constant retraining. As companies adopt AI, those costs scale. It’s not hard to imagine a near future where “budgeting for AI” competes directly with “budgeting for people.” My dream just compressed that tension into a single HR conversation.

A Matter of Human Dignity

That’s the deeper issue. Efficiency and cost trade-offs are real—but dignity is what’s at stake. If we start treating people as expenses to be trimmed in favor of algorithms, we hollow out the relationships, creativity, and meaning that make work human.

The workplace of the future must do more than integrate AI. It has to safeguard human worth. That means asking hard questions about how we measure value, how we recognize contribution, and how we design organizations that use technology to empower rather than diminish.

A Final Reflection

I woke up before my client could answer. Would he protest? Accept the cut? Walk away? I don’t know.

But as a coach, I do know this: moments like this, dreamed or real, are an invitation to pause and ask deeper questions.

• How do you define your value in a world where machines can already do part of your work?
• What do you want technology to take off your plate, and what do you want to protect as uniquely human?
• And perhaps most importantly, are you leading this change or letting it lead you?

As AI grows, leaders must keep asking the right questions about value, about direction, about how we want our organizations to work.

Because if one day HR tells us to split our paycheck with a machine, the real issue won’t be whether AI has earned it. The real issue will be whether we’ve been clear enough about the role humans play, and the worth we bring in shaping the future of work.

If this were you, if HR slid that message across the table, how would you respond?