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They expect layoffs. They're just going to blame AI for it.
Exactly this... Even ones actually attributed to AI will likely be an overreach that won't be realized until after a person's life has been totally upended... Shit's gonna be bleak
This is too dismissive.
Industrialization and automation has already eliminated an entire class of work that was otherwise there.
In a hunter gathered society or an early industrial society there was always work for everyone, in modern capitalist society, there quite frankly isn't, and that leads to huge numbers of people just being cast aside.
And AI may wipe out a huge number of the rest. I genuinely can't possibly fathom how it will do anything but exacerbate every single one of society's problems.
LLMs are not and will never be good enough to replace human labor. Augment it, sure, and that could lead to fewer jobs but that's not generally what happens. They are, however, good enough for execs to think they can replace human labor.
They don't have to be as good to replace us.
It even can be a feature if AI isn't as good as the people they are replacing. For example, in the case of call centers/help lines, it might be more desirable to have a shitty system to discourage callers yet have plausible deniability…
I find I'm referencing Cory Doctorow a lot lately…
I was in a meeting at a credit card company about 2 decades ago where a VP said exactly that - without the AI part.
The issue is that those bots are worse in completely unpredictable ways. Like when some airline passengers were given incorrect information which led to the airline being sued and having to pay the made up offer as well as damages & tribunal fees. The bots might be unhelpful, but to the disservice of the company's financials
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The AI doesn't need to be better than the professional it's replacing, it just needs to be more cost effective than the barely capable outsourced worker the jobs was going to be given anyway.
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There is a question of timeline. Maybe in 10+ years, but not 2.
The early wave of layoffs in the sector "due to AI" were at the same time as the interest rate went up, pushing all tech companies to start focusing on profit. A lot of unprofitable divisions were cut because it stopped making financial sense to invest in products that didn't have day 1 revenue.
You're now seeing companies doing layoffs and claiming AI to either hide that development in their companies have stalled or they are taking advantage of their new shiny remote work platforms to push wages down by shifting workers to places with lower cost of living.
AI labor isn't worth its tokens, even when they are heavily discounted to gain market share. It might be in a decade, but not now.
I keep seeing these comments where AI is hailed as the next industrial revolution, but I think they all miss the point.
Industrialization created jobs. There were fewer skilled jobs lost than new skilled jobs created. It then created the need for more knowledge based jobs, like civil engineers.
The AI lobby is doing the opposite. It targets higher paid skilled jobs. If they were to succeed, they would give birth to the opposite of the Industrial Revolution.
Correction: 99% of CEOs are planning to use AI as an excuse to layoff employees to juice quarterly profits. They have zero accountability and golden parachutes, so no skin off of their asses.
And the stock price bumps from layoffs mean they effectively get to just hand themselves huge raises.
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You know, a year ago people in charge were all, like nooo we’re not going to fire people and pocket the payroll savings
When did we cross the line where everybody stopped lying? I mean, our vaunted business leaders dropping the bullshit is welcome, even if its bad news… but the interesting bit is in the collective, unconscious decision to just own up to this as the likeliest future.
The Trump admin has emboldened the entire upper echelons of society to drop pretense because enough of society is stupid enough to always buy it even if its painfully obvious that they are lying. They feel untouchable with their buddies in charge.
Exactly - the more easilly the "riff-raff" is to swindle or the less capable they are to push back, the more intensely and shamelessly the "upper" classes take advantage of the rest.
You don't just see it in the historical trends (such as ever more reduced levels of broad representativeness of elected politicians in for example the US or Britain), you also see it across nations: for example after the 2008 Crash, the wealthy in France (with its tradition of public rebellion) were actually saying they should be taxed MORE, whilst the wealthy in England (whose closest to "public" rebellion ever was the Barons rebelling against the King leading to the Magna Carta) were openly lobbying the Government to be taxed LESS (and got what they asked for, with Britain endind up in Austerity, with the anger caused by it being successfully redirected against Immigrants and The EU, hence Brexit, so the wealthy were totally right in not fearing the "riff-raff").
PS: that spirit of not provoking the streets of wealthy French did not survive the Macron years, especially once he won against the "Gilet Jaunes" (Yellow Vests).
I expect 99% of CEOs to get laid off. They are too lazy, expensive and don't want to work. They have a ridiculous sense of entitlement. Ripe for automation.
When you say CEOs are you thinking of guys who are making millions with staff living on almost nothing?
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Replace C-suite executives with AI before the layoffs, then transition to a Co-Op. ✊🏼
5% of those layoffs will actually be AI related. The other 95% will be profits related.
100% of those layoffs will be for shareholder short term gain.
This type of reporting is frustrating and I really should get off the internet.
These surveys are done by consultanting companies that have large investment holdings. For example in this report one of the surveys is from Mercer, who has an investment wing that has a AUM (asset under management) ^1^ of $727 Bn according to their website ^2^. Would there potentially be any sort of chance someone like Mercer never put out a survey that goes against the bullish market driven by AI speculation? Obviously journalists won't think about these things anymore because that will effect their click rate.
I find it weird how so many companies are targeting for layoffs instead of expanding the company. You get an accelerator..
Most corporations are near-term driven, not long term. It's why many don't innovate anything anymore. Quarterly profits matter more than anything
Tariffa and Hormuz makes things expensive. People buy less so companies sell less. Layoffs everywhere.
have you seen what thier current mission, agenda is, almost every tech conference near me is AI specific. theres almost no other form of tech at these conference but some form AI bs they are pushing.(i work near a conference center)
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Passive voice shenanigans. They expect to lay off. They're the ones doing it.
https://isaiprofitable.com/ is a good site to see how profitable AI is at this moment....
Including Nvidia in the revenue figure is like asking "Is playing in a casino profitable" and including the revenue of the house in the stats.
I dunno there are some people who have bankrupted multiple casinos.
That must have absolutely ruined them!
Surelly since then nobody ever again trusted their ability to run anything!
but even so, the total including the house is still very negative, here. It would be like.... I don't know, I can't think of anyone in their right mind who could bankrupt a casino 😜
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When CEOs layouts? We can have 200 workers for their pay which will be "prompt engineers".
Well good news then, 99% of the population is going to force these 1% CEOs to be ...laid off...
Anyone know of any publicly traded guillotine producers? I'd like to invest early.
I ask again to consider that AI does not have to replace human labour to lead to layoffs. All it has to do is help existing labour to produce more in the same amount of time. In an economy that doesn't suddenly want to buy more product than it previously did, that means letting go of the people whose labour is no longer needed to produce the same amount product it previously had. Whether or not corpos are using AI as cover for layoffs, if today's AI increases productivity, it very likely will lead to layoffs. And there are signs that it does indeed increase productivity in some tasks in certain sectors.
Can any 'ai' round up billionaires and corporate CEO's and 'process' them through a woodchipper or guillotine?
That's the only ai company/startup I'm interested in.
That’s okay. I will choose not to participate in your new economy beyond buying essentials like food.
Who are they expecting to sell stuff to if everyone is unemployed and fighting over an ever decreasing piece of the pie?
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Automation of what ?
shareholder value
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this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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