What My Gen Z Son Taught Me About the Price of Productivity in the Age of AI
Like many professionals today, I work from home unless I am doing an office visit, attending a conference, or going on a partner tour. One of the benefits of working remotely is that, from time to time, a kid will drop by, sometimes to say hello, sometimes to borrow money (not my favorite), or lately, my youngest son stopping in to get help with college and job applications.
During one of those drop-ins, I reminded him that it is not enough to just submit a job application. You should always follow up with a message that explains why you are the right fit. He was applying for a summer camp counselor role, and like many of my work colleagues who have succumbed to leaning on AI from time to time, I suggested using AI to help refine the message. I pointed him to Perplexity to help draft something that still sounded like him, just with fewer filler phrases.
He looked at me in complete disbelief and said, “Mom, no one uses AI anymore. It is killing our planet.”
What? I was stunned. Not just by his reaction, but by the clarity of that statement. I have spent over three decades in tech. AI tools are now baked into almost every productivity process I touch. We use them to test code, clean up copy, align brand voice, even strategize product launches. We talk about privacy, performance, and funding the next breakthrough model. But we do not talk much about sustainability.
That conversation made me pause and ask myself what we are really gaining from this speed and what it could be costing us.
The Environmental Reality of AI
I started digging.
Each ChatGPT query uses about 0.34 watt-hours of electricity. That sounds small until you consider the millions of queries run every day. (Business Insider)
Between 2019 and 2023, the data centers powering this tech saw a 72 percent increase in energy consumption. (Arbor) If trends continue, global AI infrastructure could use 945 terawatt-hours per year by 2030. That is comparable to the annual electricity use of entire nations. (The Times)
Water use is just as startling. Each query to a model like ChatGPT consumes about 0.000085 gallons of water. (The Verge) That is tiny, but training a model like GPT-3 can use over 700,000 liters, which is the same as making 320 Tesla cars. (Wikipedia) By 2027, AI could require 6.6 billion cubic meters of water per year. That is more than the entire country of Denmark. (Forbes)
Each AI query also emits about 4.3 grams of CO₂. (Cal State Journal) Training one large model releases over 626,000 pounds of CO₂, which is more than five times the total emissions from an average gas-powered car over its lifetime. (Carma Earth)
From 2020 to 2023, emissions from Microsoft and Amazon alone increased by 150 percent, primarily due to the explosion in AI workload. (Devdiscourse)
The Bigger Picture
This matters. Increased energy demand means more fossil fuel use, more strain on grids, and higher emissions. And it means higher costs for people and businesses too.
Some researchers estimate that training a large AI model uses the same power as driving a car to the moon and back. And once it is trained, it still requires ten times more energy per use than a basic Google search.
AI is helping companies innovate, but it could also be holding us back from meeting our climate goals.
The Good News
AI is not just part of the problem. It can be part of the solution.
It can forecast solar and wind energy production by analyzing weather data
It can power smart appliances that run only when electricity is cheap and clean
It can help utilities detect energy waste and reduce emissions at scale
But this only works if we build AI responsibly, with sustainability and privacy in mind from the start.
Why Coachcella Cares
At Coachcella, we are not AI engineers, but we are in the business of building strong leaders. That includes helping our clients make ethical and informed decisions about the tools they use.
We believe AI should amplify your work, not replace it. We also believe it should be used in a way that is safe, private, and better for the environment.
If you want to explore how to use AI more responsibly in your business or team, we are here to help. Reach out to Coachcella. Let’s build something smarter and greener together.
