A sobering statistic from JPMorgan Chase underscores the growing anxiety around AI and jobs: U.S. employers announced more than 1.1 million job cuts in 2025. Of those, about 55,000 cited AI as a factor — less than 5% of layoffs and roughly 0.03% of total employment.
Still, as 2026 begins, fears about AI’s impact on the workforce continue to rise. Among the most vocal is entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who warns that automation could displace millions of workers in the years ahead.
In a recent Substack post, Yang outlined a troubling outlook for the job market, arguing that rapid advances in AI could intensify disruption already underway.
He warns of risks as companies replace humans with AI
Yang’s blog post, titled "The End of the Office," forecasted the biggest social impacts that’ll result from the surge of AI across companies and the resulting displacement of white-collar and office workers.
“It won’t just be the managers. It will be the call-center workers, the marketers, the coders, the financial forecasting teams, and on and on; business functions are going to get compressed into a handful of key employees supplemented by AI,” he stated. “In essence, the number of people necessary to make large corporations function is going to be dramatically reduced.”
Yang also predicted that personal bankruptcies will also increase over time as more and more jobs are lost. It’s bad now, but he states that it’s going to get worse as more workers become unemployed and fall into dire financial situations. Not only will this affect office workers, but it will also impact your workers from more labor-intensive professions.
“Even if you’re not an office worker, you may be affected,” Yang sombly noted. “Let’s say you’re a drycleaner or a dog walker or a hairstylist. If people in your community stop going to the office, your business is going to suffer because there are fewer business shirts to launder, people will walk their dogs themselves and cut back on trips to the salon, etc."
The rest of Yang’s bullet points allude to current and future college grads having an even harder time securing jobs, metro office spaces being abandoned as workers who once filled them are laid off, and the public’s pessimistic opinions toward AI increasing.
One of the closing quotes from his blog sets out to make everyone aware of the trying times ahead: "I know that we could and should be doing much more for the people and families of this country. In the absence of that kind of coming together, we are left with every-person-for-yourself in the face of the greatest technological transformation of our lifetimes.”
The takeaway
It’s becoming clear that AI adoption may reshape the workforce before its benefits are fully realized. As companies prioritize automation, many workers worry about what that shift could mean for job stability.
Public concern is already high. A February 2026 YouGov poll found that 63% of Americans believe AI will reduce the number of jobs available in the United States.
At the same time, AI has advanced rapidly and is now embedded in roles once considered uniquely human, raising new questions about how work will evolve.
In a recent blog post, Yang outlined a sobering outlook for the future of employment — a reminder that individuals and families should stay informed and prepared as the technology continues to reshape the workplace.
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