He tried 200 to-do apps so you don't have to

**Casey Newton** (0:00)
He may have tested every productivity tool in the world, but in the AI era, which ones actually solve your problems and which are a waste of your time? That's this week on Platformer. This episode is brought to you by Jira Byte Atlassian, where teams and coding agents get the context they need to do the right work. Try it free at jira.dev, that's J-I-R-A dot D-E-V.
Welcome to Platformer, I'm Casey Newton. Last season, we talked about what AI means for jobs and the risk that huge numbers of jobs might soon go away. This season, we're turning our attention to what you can do to keep your job. What tools and strategies can you use to keep your advantage in a world where AI capabilities continue to advance? There's nobody better to help us map that landscape than my friend David Pierce. David is an editor at Large of The Verge, co-host of The Verge Cast, and the author of Installer, the weekly newsletter where he tells the world what to download, watch, and try. He spent his entire career test driving the tools that the rest of us use to organize our lives, and today I'm going to ask him what's real and what is just productivity theater. First though, as always, we begin by checking in on the state of AI and the economy, and that means it's time to bring in Platformer fellow and Gen Z AI correspondent, Ella Markianos.
Ella, how are you this week?

**Ella Markianos** (1:43)
I'm wonderful. I just had a beautiful 4th of July weekend. I went to a nice cookout and also to a more heterodox celebration of Canada Day, which is apparently on July 1st.

**Casey Newton** (1:56)
And how do Canadians celebrate Canada Day?

**Ella Markianos** (2:00)
There was only one Canadian at the gathering, interestingly. But I think a lot of kind of strangely flavored Canadian sodas were consumed.

**Casey Newton** (2:12)
What is the strangest Canadian soda that you encountered?

**Ella Markianos** (2:17)
I really cannot remember the names of any of them. They like flew through my brain.

**Casey Newton** (2:25)
Well, perhaps something for our listeners to investigate on their own time and discover the dynamic world of Canadian soda. In the meantime though, Ella, I'm wondering if you have any news to bring us from the realm of AI and jobs.

**Ella Markianos** (2:42)
Yeah. So in fact, I have some news from both the US and Canada about some people who really don't want to use AI at their jobs.
So the Digital Education Council, which is a consortium of global university educators, did a survey that surveyed over 18,000 faculty members across 35 countries. And one thing they found is the percentage of faculty members in the US and Canada who plan to use AI in teaching has gone down 9% from 2025 to 2026

**Casey Newton** (3:19)
Wow. So even though the technology has been getting better, the number of Canadian teachers that plan to use it as part of their work is going down seemingly significantly.

**Ella Markianos** (3:32)
Yeah, American and Canadian.

**Casey Newton** (3:34)
Oh, wow. Okay.

**Ella Markianos** (3:35)
Yeah.
And in the rest of the world, this actually isn't what we're seeing. They have three other regional breakdowns. There's Latin America, there's a group that's Europe, the Middle East and Africa, there's Asia. And all of those groups are hovering around 90 percent plan to use AI somehow in their teaching. And that's about the same as they were last year. But in the US and Canada, it's only 67 percent of professors. And it's down from last year when it was still in the 70s.

**Casey Newton** (4:05)
And what do we make of that discrepancy? Did they sort of follow up with the American and Canadian teachers and ask them why they felt this way?

**Ella Markianos** (4:14)
Yeah, unfortunately, we do not have direct responses from these teachers right now. So it's hard to tell. I keep on trying to think of wild theories, and none of them actually fit regional breakdowns I can think of. Data centers wouldn't be that different, or energies wouldn't be that different in how big of a deal it is, in terms of actual data center buildup between regions. I don't know. This has in some sense stumped me, but also on a vibe level, it makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, just like when I talk to, mostly the population I talk to about AI is AI researchers and AI policy people. And in general, when I talk to AI researchers and AI policy people in the US and Canada, they just are way more negative about AI across the board in a really strong way, where it almost seems like this very pervasive cultural effect.