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George gave his customary ‘Bonjour’ greeting to the security guard, headed to the lift and pressed the 9^th floor button. Sitting down at his desk, he effortlessly switched on his computer and watched the 12 golden stars of the ERA appear before him.

“Things seem to be gliding along this morning,” was his first half-thought, as the results of the AI enquiry, provided by ‘Hercules © – The perfect AI tool for all your Policy Knowledge Needs’, which he had requested the previous evening, popped up on the screen.

“Piece of cake, this AI stuff,” he half-thought, again.

George needed the AI input for a briefing he was preparing for the Commissioner’s participation in a panel at the High-Level Meeting of next month’s World Economic Organisation, whose theme this time round was ‘Sustainable Economic Governance for All in a Changing World’.

Before he knew it, Hercules © had completed the briefing.

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“Are you saying everything is better for the functionary with computers?” asked Konrad with a frown. “In what way?”

In his political administration course, Konrad’s prof had told the students never to use the words ‘better’ or ‘worse’ without a qualifier.

“Oh, in lots of ways,” said George, trying hard to keep an air of calm in face of a bold question.

“Computers have made a civil servant’s life better, in three main areas.”

“Primo, quality and variety of outputs. Secundo, the range of background analysis. And, now here’s one aspect that might not meet the eye, tertio, enhanced internal control systems.”

Konrad deepened his grimace.

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Feeling more than a little intrigued by where George’s circumlocutions were leading, Konrad decided to stick with the conversation.

“George, this is very interesting. But where did all this stuff about the efficiency of functionaries and computers come from?” asked the intern.

“Oh, it’s come to me over the years,” replied George, eager to press on and provide the answer. “Though, certainly, something rubbed off from Parkinson himself!”

Konrad smiled respectfully in order to make way for George to continue.

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“OK George! We got the picture!” jibed André, in response to George’s graphic description of the state-of-the-art of administration 30 years before. “But remember! Despite the old tech, you did manage to make the policy coup of introducing the Euro! And at least you didn’t have to do it all with quill pens and parchment!”

Without realizing it, George’s colleagues had been rash to underestimate how much George had reflected over the years on Parkinson’s law and his scientific approach to administration. George had even devised his own calculation method for such matters. He always found a mathematical expression helped discipline his thinking. To avoid the conversation going in all directions, George was now starting to think that it would be a good idea to use the equation to guide his argumentation.

“Ha! Ha!” George came back, chuckling in two breaths to show the others he was keen to share more. “Precisely. Quill pens and parchment. Let’s have a closer look at what I like to call the ‘computer effect’ in the ERA over the last 30 years.”

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“Anybody against such an innovation would surely qualify themselves as a Luddite”, chimed George over coffee that morning, as a tricky discussion unfolded about the introduction of the new Artificial Intelligence tool for managing briefings in the European Regulatory Authority.

“But the briefing is the most critical work we do”, contested André. “I just don’t see how a machine can encapsulate all the elements of a Line-to-Take, to the same standard as any one of us would”, he insisted.

“That depends on what you mean by standards”, butted in Jernej, who until then had not participated in the group’s conversation. “The hierarchy seem to think more and more, as far as I can see, that the key indicator of a high standard briefing means getting the right font, the right line spacing and fitting it all into five pages”, he added, gesturing through his body language that he had little interest in pursuing any further the subject of this particular coffee-time debate.

André was evidently far more alarmed by the whole affair.

“In the end, it must mean fewer jobs for functionaries like us. And lower pay”, André asserted, with a sad shake of his head.

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