Fifty-four percent. That is the share of layoff events in 2026 where companies have explicitly pointed to artificial intelligence, automation, or machine learning as a contributing factor, according to Layoffs.fyi, an industry tracking platform. More than 170,000 workers have been affected by these AI-attributed cuts so far this year.
The scale marks a sharp shift from recent history. In 2025, AI was cited as a factor in fewer than eight percent of layoff announcements.
