A well-known American clothing brand just banned AI. All of it.
Over 2,000 employees. One approved tool: Microsoft Copilot chat.
No Claude Code, no Claude, no ChatGPT, no Cursor, no agents. Nothing.
No AI — for anyone.
I heard this from Maya (name changed for privacy), a senior software engineer there. At a recent company meeting, management announced the decision from the top down.
I asked her why. Management’s reasoning was a long list:
- The codebase is .NET, with no Python
- Upskilling people costs money
- Hiring AI engineers costs money
- Security teams worry about code leaking into AI tools
- LLMs hallucinate
Read that list again.
No AI — for anyone.
The only tool allowed: Microsoft Copilot chat.
No Claude Code, no Claude, no ChatGPT, no Cursor, no agents. Nothing.
I asked Maya why. Management’s reasoning was a long list: the codebase is .NET with no Python, upskilling people costs money, hiring AI engineers costs money, security teams worry about code leaking into AI tools, and LLMs hallucinate.
Read that list again.
None of those reasons says AI doesn’t work.
They all say the same thing: adopting AI costs money and carries risk. That’s a budget decision — and budgets get revised.
Now here’s the part I loved. Maya isn’t arguing with anyone, and she isn’t sulking.
She’s learning AI harder than ever. Her words:
“What I learn today is for the next opportunity.”
That’s the mindset. Her company’s decision applies to its products and its systems — her career sits outside it.
Your skills belong to you. They travel with you to the next opportunity.
Learn for what’s next,
Kirill
P.S. Maya also said: “So many layoffs these days due to AI. It is scary.” I get it. But notice what she did with that fear — she turned it into a study plan. That beats worrying, every time.