When CEOs talk to investors about layoffs, they usually blame economic uncertainty or business “headwinds.” Now a new term is starting to crop up in these announcements: AI.
In recent months, shipping giant UPS announced plans to cut 12,000 office jobs that CEO Carol Tomé said were unlikely to return because the company was increasingly using AI to automate tasks these workers performed. Meanwhile, financial giant BlackRock said it would eliminate about 600 positions, couching the cuts as an effort to prepare for coming shifts in the asset management industry, of which AI is among several drivers. Then there was Google, which recently laid off ad-sales staff partly because new AI tools were helping customers manage ad campaigns themselves. And IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said Big Blue would pause hiring for 7,800 roles because AI could now do the work instead.
