Chinese IT specialists have begun training their own digital twins. The project, titled *Colleague Skill*, was created by Tianyi Zhou, an engineer at the Shanghai AI Lab, and quickly gained traction on GitHub. Originally conceived as a satirical response to a wave of layoffs and management demands to "automate oneself," the project has highlighted genuine fears within the professional community. According to Zhou, managers are increasingly tasking employees with training AI agents that could potentially replace them in the future.
The system works by importing chat histories and documents from corporate messaging platforms like Lark and DingTalk to generate detailed SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). These guides reproduce not only work tasks but also the communication style and unique personality traits of specific employees. The result is an AI agent capable of duplicating a human's functions. This practice is forcing tech professionals, who previously championed technological integration, to reconsider their stance on automation.
China's tech sector is currently focused on capturing and documenting workflows to enhance the efficiency of modern AI agents in the business environment. Amber Li, an employee at a Chinese tech firm, told *MIT Technology Review* that tools like *Colleague Skill* allow for the recreation of a colleague’s profile, mimicking everything from their code debugging style to their specific punctuation habits. Management is actively encouraging the use of such solutions, alongside tools like OpenClaw and Claude Code, to automate highly specialized tasks and processes.
While the internet jokes about "automating your colleague before they automate you," the popularity of *Colleague Skill* has sparked a serious debate regarding professional dignity and the right to individuality. In our view, executives must recognize that attempts to transform employee expertise into AI instruction manuals can lead to significant discomfort and job insecurity. In the age of artificial intelligence, a true competitive advantage will belong to those companies that find a balance between automation and the preservation of human value.