As AI adoption spreads, it's also leading to layoffs. Here's how real the threat is — and how to adapt, according to executives and experts

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While the advent of artificial intelligence is expected to open up new avenues across industries, it’s not all necessarily good news as far as jobs are concerned. In recent weeks, AI has been blamed as a driver of layoffs at a host of companies.

Google laid off hundreds of workers in January as it shifted more of its investments into AI development, with CFO Ruth Porat pointing to “streamlining operations across Alphabet through the use of AI” as part of a larger realignment of spending.

Similarly, the language learning app Duolingo recently cut 10% of its contractors, saying that AI would replace some of the content creation they had handled. And UPS attributed its recent layoffs in part to new technologies, including AI, that have helped it determine what to charge its customers for shipments, CEO Carol Tomé said last month.

Companies have directly attributed more than 4,600 layoffs since last May to AI, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas , which estimated that the full count of AI-related job cuts is likely higher.

This is apparently just the start. Generative AI could soon upend a much bigger share of white-collar jobs , according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. That’s because of its power to essentially synthesize ideas and create content almost instantly — resembling what people do behind computers — and thereby render several roles obsolete.

Is the AI threat real or exaggerated?

As far as AI’s impact on the workforce is concerned, experts and business leaders appear to be in one of two camps — those who are skeptical about how much AI will impact jobs and workers, and those who believe that it will materially impact many job functions altogether.

Executives like 摩根大通 CEO Jamie Dimon have indicated that they are squarely in the latter camp. Dimon told CNBC this week that AI will eventually “be used in almost every job,” adding that the banking giant has 200 workers dedicated to researching large language models, including how they can be used internally.?

Just as the onset of the internet made roles like travel agents redundant, several jobs could be wiped out as a result of AI, Talila Millman , who runs a fractional CTO consultancy, wrote on LinkedIn.

Chris Miller , founder of the strategic tech consultancy Cloud Brigade, agreed, writing on LinkedIn that AI will upend many industries — especially software-related jobs that will shift to architecture rather than development — and cause a resulting shift in headcounts.

Others argue that the AI threat is exaggerated. AI can save time and help with tasks, but seeing it as fundamentally removing a large portion of jobs is unlikely, said Sam Balter , the head of content at video software company Wistia, pointing out how self-driving cars were also once heralded as major disruptors of jobs such as truck drivers, but ultimately failed to deliver on their promise.

Moreover, companies attributing recent layoffs directly to changes coming from AI are merely using it as a crutch to justify streamlining operations as they struggle to operate more efficiently, said Chet Kapoor , chairman and CEO at generative AI developer platform DataStax .

“Either they're using this as an opportunity to clean up their bottom performers and shape up their P&L, or they actually believe that AI is going to give them productivity gains and so they need to reduce the workforce,” he told LinkedIn News. “The latter is extremely short-sighted, because if you fundamentally believe that technology will actually help productivity, the way to go about it is changing jobs and reskilling people, not doing layoffs.”?

Vin Vashishta , the founder of AI and data consultancy V Squared, agreed, saying that some companies “are cutting back on one side of the house to free up money to invest in AI talent, tools and infrastructure,” as the productivity boost from AI enables them to restructure without reducing their service levels.?

Still, the fact that some job functions are more likely than others to be affected by AI cannot be overlooked.

Industries like call centers, telemarketing, editing, graphic designing and manufacturing, where AI can perform mundane tasks more efficiently and accurately, will be more impacted, said Michael Clarke , CEO of the decentralized fintech app Daada. Clarke said he’s been testing AI for video editing and graphic design, and has managed to cut down on such costs.

The tea leaves are already starting to point toward the more ominous outcome for some. Shares of the French call-center firm Teleperformance , for example, slumped this week after its customer, Swedish buy-now-pay-later lender Klarna , said that its AI assistant is doing the work equivalent of 700 full-time agents within the first month of being deployed.

How workers can prepare themselves for changes brought about by AI

Business leaders are largely in agreement that AI will, at the very least, augment some white-collar roles, enabling employees to do more meaningful work more efficiently. Among them is 英伟达 CEO Jensen Huang, who said this week that AI will eventually allow everyone to become a programmer, making it less important for today's students to learn how to code.

AI will act as an assistant in functions including legal, finance and medical services, where errors are not acceptable and human oversight is necessary, Steve Gregersen , a technical writer at Aquent, wrote on LinkedIn.

With AI here to stay, people should view the technology as an opportunity and a tool to boost productivity — akin to the mobile phone, laptops, electricity and cars — rather than a threat, Dave Powell , a technologist at Experian, wrote on LinkedIn.

While the debate rages on around whether AI is actually replacing the need for workers, experts largely agree that it could affect future headcounts and job functions as employers hire more cautiously and increase their investments into the technology. In these circumstances, workers who familiarize themselves with the technology and become adept at using it will stand a better chance at surviving any future displacement.

“It is a potential threat if you do not upskill yourself with AI,” wrote Pierre Thyssen , CTO at the Xeta Group. “The genie is out of the bottle, and it is not going back in.”

“The threat is absolutely real, however it's an incredible moment for upskilling and reimagining roles,” agreed James Andrews , who runs the creator studio Creator Mode Studios. “Employees will not be replaced by AI but by employees who understand AI.”?

Others remain optimistic, saying that once AI matures, it will also lead to the creation of new jobs that didn’t exist before — just like the internet led to SEO experts, pointed out Sameer Penakalapati, an entrepreneur and CEO of automated talent acquisition firm Ceipal Corp.

At the same time, unbridled optimism that ignores the realities of how AI and automation will impact some segments of the workforce more than others is a recipe for disaster, Robert Adrian , a VP of technology at Deloitte, pointed out on LinkedIn.

“The optimism that new jobs will seamlessly replace those lost ignores the qualitative mismatch and the daunting re-skilling challenge facing a global workforce,” he wrote. “Without proactive measures to redistribute automation's gains, the promise of a technologically advanced future risks being marked by disparity and a search for purpose.”

Your weekly dose of a newsmaker’s perspective on significant timely developments, shared first or only on LinkedIn.

New York-based early-stage venture capital firm Inspired Capital announced the closing of its third fund today, with $330 million in capital commitments — bringing its total assets under management to about $900 million.

The firm, founded by former LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker , will back tech startups building both economic value and tackling societal issues, with checks of up to $15 million across pre-seed and Series A rounds.

At a time when it’s been hard for many firms to raise new funds , von Tobel attributes Inspired Capital’s successful fundraising to its track record so far.

“We have four companies that are doing over $100 million of revenue and a few that are doing significantly more than that,” she said. “The traction in fund one and fund two is clear.”

While Inspired invests across sectors, key themes for the third fund include digitization of the industrial economy, retooling the modern workforce, the monetization layer of the internet, financial equilibrium in a volatile society, and unlocking human potential through AI, von Tobel told LinkedIn News.

“AI is going to touch everything — every company will be an AI company,” she said. “But we believe that a lot still needs to happen to really unlock AI, so how do we do that faster and how do we make sure it's being done safely and properly?”

The firm, which has backed the likes of Databricks Mosaic Research in the past, will focus on investing in various aspects of AI, including the infrastructure layer and startups tackling the growing GPU shortage, but is cautious of enterprise AI startups — given the massive advantages that incumbents already have, said von Tobel.

“The biggest enterprise companies have such distribution advantages,” she said. “And so when the elephant stands, we don't want to be an ant.”

See von Tobel’s post detailing the announcement here .

Here’s where we bring you up to speed with the latest advancements from the world of AI.

• 谷歌 ’s recent AI push has turned into a reputational nightmare for the company , after its Gemini chatbot came under fire last week for producing historically and racially inaccurate images . The controversy prompted CEO Sundar Pichai to address staffers in an email where he admitted “We got it wrong,” and has sparked a new round of debate over the ethics and biases of AI as tech giants battle to be first and best in the field. Google did not test all the ways the image-generation function "might deliver unexpected results," and was not prepared for the kind of backlash it received, sources told Bloomberg. Google will revive the image-generation feature within a "few weeks," said the head of the company's AI division .
• Engineers really covet jobs at 英伟达 . The company has become a frontrunner in the AI boom , with a market value hovering around $2 trillion, and recruiters say it’s now among the most desirable places to work. Searches for jobs or internships at Nvidia have spiked in recent months, and some college students even refer to working for the company as a “dream job,” The Wall Street Journal reports . However, landing a six-figure position there is difficult, with many of the job descriptions requiring strong technical skills, niche industry knowledge and graduate or doctoral degrees.
• The battle for 华特迪士尼公司 ’s board is heating up, with a focus on AI. Blackwells Capital , one of the activist investors agitating for a shake-up at the entertainment giant, says Disney should appoint a single chief technology officer to drive its technological "transformation," per a presentation seen by Bloomberg . Blackwells also wants Disney to spend more on research and development around AI. Meanwhile, Disney has inked a deal to merge its media operations in India with Reliance Industries, sources told Bloomberg . Reliance is expected to own at least 61% of the resulting conglomerate.
• 博通 is selling its software unit to PE giant KKR for $4 billion. The chipmaker is seeking to "streamline" after completing its $69 billion acquisition of VMware in November. Broadcom's end-user computing unit, which allows remote access of desktops and applications, will be run by its current management team as a standalone company, KKR said . Broadcom is also looking to unload a security-software business picked up in the VMware deal.

Here’s a list of other notable AI developments from this week:

• LinkedIn parent company 微软 has taken a stake in French AI startup Mistral AI . As part of the strategic partnership, the startup’s models will be available on Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform Azure. That’s not all: IBM too is launching a version of one of Mistral AI 's AI models, and 亚马逊 has integrated them into its family of models called Bedrock. But the move has also attracted antitrust scrutiny, with European commissioners eager to examine whether the deal aligns with the EU’s competition law.
• AI startup Character.ai is reportedly in talks to raise around $200 million in a round backed by Google, Business Insider reported, after Reuters first reported the news in November.
• LinkedIn sister company and open-source software platform GitHub launched a new product called the GitHub Copilot Enterprise — an AI assistant that can essentially generate code suggestions and answer queries by plugging into a company’s database. CEO Thomas Dohmke shared the news on LinkedIn. Check it out here.
• South Korea's largest telecom company, SK电讯 , is partnering with U.S.-based AI startup Perplexity to offer its AI-based search engine to users as an alternative to Google and Naver. CEO Aravind Srinivas shared the news on LinkedIn. Check it out here.
• ICYMI: OpenAI is bringing its AI technology to video, and launched its new generative AI model called Sora last week. Sora works similarly to OpenAI’s image-generation tool, DALL-E, where a user can type out a desired scene and the AI system will return a high-definition video clip.

Catch up on the tech headlines you may have missed this week and what our members are saying about them on LinkedIn.

• Reddit, Inc. has filed the paperwork for its IPO at the New York Stock Exchange, and would be the first social media company to go public since Pinterest in 2019 . The company had sales of $804 million in 2023, up 20% from the previous year and a narrower net loss, per the Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The move comes during a rocky couple of years for IPOs , which have seen investors flee unprofitable businesses after the tech boom of 2020-21. Notably, Reddit's prospectus reveals the company has made $203 million from data-licensing agreements for AI-model training using its content, including a $60 million a year agreement with Google, per Reuters , citing anonymous sources.
• 三星电子 showcases a 'smart ring.' The company announced a wearable smart ring for health tracking ahead of the Mobile World Congress conference, joining other companies including Huawei spinoff Honor in showcasing phones with AI features . However, there's one big player that won't be at MWC: Apple. It "has explored the idea" of a fitness ring like Samsung's, as well as smart glasses and other wearables , but is not currently developing them, Bloomberg reports , citing anonymous sources. HMD , a maker of Nokia phones, will begin releasing devices under its own name — including a pink Barbie flip phone with Mattel, Inc. 联想 is demonstrating a concept laptop with a see-through screen.?
• PlayStation maker 索尼 and 美国艺电公司 are the latest gaming companies to lay off hundreds of workers. While Sony announced a headcount reduction on Tuesday that will affect 900 people, or about 8% of its global workforce, EA is laying off 5% of its workers — an estimated 670 people. Gaming levels have dropped following a pandemic boom, and data released last month by the Game Developers Conference indicates one-third of game developers were affected by layoffs in 2023. Sony’s announcement follows a workforce reduction by the British studio Supermassive Games on Monday and layoffs by rivals Activision Blizzard and Riot Games in January. Meanwhile, dating app Bumble Inc. is also letting go of 37% of its staff . The layoffs will affect about 350 employees and are part of a restructuring aimed at “delivering new and engaging user experiences,” according to new CEO Lidiane Jones.
• 苹果 is giving up on its decade-long EV ambitions. The tech giant’s plan to quit the electric-vehicle race was said to be a shocker to the 2,000-member "Project Titan" team, many of whom will shift to generative AI work while others will be laid off, Bloomberg reports , citing unnamed sources. The ambitious, multibillion-dollar project's struggles had intensified recently: last month, Apple pushed back its EV launch date to 2028 from 2026 and said the car would not be fully autonomous. At the same time, the market for all-electric vehicles has slowed, and 福特 , 通用汽车 and others have shifted focus to producing hybrid vehicles. Apple is giving up on billions in potential revenue and hoping some of its big investments in areas such as generative AI and mixed-reality headsets can bridge the gap, notes Bloomberg . CEO Tim Cook told shareholders the company is “investing significantly ” in AI, and teased that big news there is coming later this year.
• SCOTUS weighs in on content moderation. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in two cases that could transform content moderation on social media. The cases challenge Texas and Florida laws that prohibit social platforms from removing or blocking content, including taking down politicians' accounts. The cases will decide if tech firms can police themselves , or whether they have to abide by state laws. Meanwhile, Meta 's controversial move to force European Union users to either consent to be "tracked and profiled" or pay to opt out of ads on Facebook and Instagram has come under fresh scrutiny . Eight consumer-rights groups from the bloc are filing complaints with their national watchdogs on Thursday over Meta's "pay-or-consent" model, a European consumer organization announced.

Here’s keeping tabs on key executives on the move and other big pivots in the tech industry. Please send me personnel moves within emerging tech.

• Instacart COO Asha Sharma is leaving the grocery-delivery company to lead product for LinkedIn parent Microsoft’s AI platform, she announced first on LinkedIn .
• Netflix has named Dan Lin to lead its film business, following the departure of longtime head Scott Stuber , who is set to step down in March.
• Frank Slootman , the billionaire CEO of Snowflake , is retiring, the cloud software company announced this week. He'll be replaced by Sridhar Ramaswamy , who spent 15 years at 谷歌 , most recently as head of its ads and commerce business.
• Dell Technologies ’ longtime chief marketing officer, Allison Dew , is set to retire next month, according to Business Insider.

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