Companies are experimenting with different approaches to workforce AI adoption, with some warning of job losses to others committing to worker redeployment.
Amazon is warning all of its employees that AI will lead to headcount reductions – despite the fact that CEO Andy Jassy conceded that many of the AI agents needed to replace these roles have yet to be built.
Salesforce claims that as much as 30 to 50 percent of the company’s work is now completed by AI. The company announced it was laying off a thousand people but also reportedly plans to hire another thousand focused on selling the company’s own AI agent technology, Agentforce. AJ Dellinger of Gizmodo points out the irony of this move: “Salesforce is hiring real people to sell other companies on adopting AI to replace some of its human workforce.”
IBM announced it replaced hundreds of human resources staff with AI and used the freed-up resources to hire more programmers and salespeople, functions the company identified as “critical thinking” and not “rote-process work.” (Companies taking this approach should be cautious; bias in AI hiring tools is well-documented. Workday is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that the tools the company used to screen job applicants discriminates against candidates over 40 years old.)
Cisco incentivizes managers to use AI in ways that increase an organization’s performance by allowing teams to keep 50 percent of any savings. One senior executive came up with an AI use case that saved the company $20 million. While managers are being asked to consider whether jobs can be automated before filling any open roles, the company says the majority of job openings are still approved.
When Duolingo announced it was becoming an “AI-first” company, the company faced an online backlash from its users. A barrage of social media comments targeting the company revealed widespread disdain for the idea of workers being replaced with AI. Duolingo has since softened its stance, clarifying that AI will not be replacing the company’s workforce and that any displaced hourly contractors will “probably” be offered other work.
Microsoft has laid off more than 9,000 workers in its third round of layoffs this year, putting the total number of affected employees at around 15,000. It’s unclear whether the workers were replaced by AI or whether the layoffs amount to post-pandemic right-sizing.
Companies seeking to replace roles and workers with AI should be cautious. If AI is going to truly replace human workers, certain technical issues need to be addressed, like persistent long-term memory and hallucinations. Employers should avoid overestimating the technological readiness of current AI offerings, which can often do large portions of a job but not the whole thing.
Questions to consider
How are companies planning to maintain and grow their long-term talent pipeline, especially in functions that are seeing high AI adoption?
