Are AI tools actually replacing work, or just creating better drafts?

Most AI tools are great at one thing: getting you started.

They generate:

first drafts
basic code
outlines
ideas

But after that, humans almost always step in.

So the question is:
are we eliminating work, or just shifting it?

Before, you wrote from scratch.
Now, you edit what AI produces.

Sometimes that saves time.
But the cognitive effort is still there — just in a different form.

And in many cases, editing a mediocre AI output
is harder than creating something yourself.

So is AI replacing work, or just speeding up the first step?