Artificial intelligence taking people’s jobs is no longer a just threat on the horizon. In May, 3,900 people were laid off due to the technology, a new report has found.
U.S. companies cut over 80,000 jobs last month, up 20% from April, according to the report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Reasons for the layoffs included market conditions, restructuring, and buyouts but also, for the first time, A.I.
The nearly 4,000 A.I.-related layoffs were all in the tech industry, Andy Challenger, senior vice president of the recruiting firm, told Fortune. The cuts come amid a major retrenchment for the sector, which this year has had the highest number of year-to-date layoffs since the 2001 dotcom bubble burst.
“We do believe A.I. will cause more job loss, though we are surprised how quickly the technology was cited as a reason,” Challenger said. “It is incredible the speed the technology is evolving and being adapted.”
The Challenger report did not specify which companies had the A.I.-related job cuts.
Still, A.I. is creating new jobs while eliminating others. JPMorgan advertised 3,651 new A.I.-related positions between February and April, Bloomberg reported. Many companies aren't getting rid of workers due to A.I., but are instead using it as a tool to help employees by letting it handle some of the grunt work.
Most Americans believe that A.I. will eventually affect their jobs, a recent survey by software company Krista found. But there is a major split between what managers think versus rank-and-file workers. Managers are optimistic about the technology being a boon to their work, with only 11% thinking it will negatively impact their jobs. However, rank-and-file workers are far more likely to be concerned that the technology could hurt their careers, with nearly double the number saying A.I. will negatively impact their jobs.
In March, Goldman Sachs predicted that 18% of worldwide work and a fourth of all work tasks in the U.S. and Europe could be automated. The same report found that white-collar jobs, including computer and financial jobs and especially administrative and legal work, are at greater risk than blue-collar ones that require physical labor.
This is because A.I. can automate tasks such as summarizing fund performance reports, writing code, and other high-level tasks that require years for humans to learn. It can immediately access information that people would have to memorize, and can process reams of data in minutes or seconds. With that kind of computing power, some companies find it cheaper and more efficient to enlist A.I. than employ people.
Because A.I. primarily eliminates white-collar jobs, some people who have already been laid off due to the technology have transitioned to blue-collar work. Olivia Lipkin, a former copywriter in San Francisco who was replaced by A.I., is now a dog walker, the Washington Post reported. She told the Post that before she was laid off, coworkers referred to her as “Olivia/ChatGPT” on the company Slack.
As A.I. continues to be improved, the possibility of wide-scale layoffs and workers having to take lower paying jobs increases.
“The uncertainty lies in whether companies will cite A.I. as a reason [for termination] going forward,” Challenger told Fortune. “It remains to be seen how investors will react to that sort of adoption that costs human jobs.”
