Anthropic just launched their Economic Index to track how AI is impacting labor markets. It’s neat in theory—graphs, trends, predictions—but let’s not pretend a line chart can explain the human cost of automation.

Sure, it tells you how many jobs are “impacted.” But it doesn’t tell you what that feels like for a 50-year-old tech support guy who just got replaced by a chatbot. Or a young analyst whose role got downgraded to “data janitor.”

Use the index, sure. But talk to real people. Run exit interviews. Do surveys. Data needs a soul if it’s going to mean anything.