#ailayoffs

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

All this talk about how AI is going to take this company so far ahead has it really helped you at all? Or just helped you out the door?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/batteryvault_general-motors-indefinitely-freezes-26b-activity-7398724869489737729-xDgR

General Motors has indefinitely frozen its $2.6 billion Tennessee megafactory project and announced its largest layoff wave, cutting 3,420 jobs across its EV and battery manufacturing operations in late 2025. The majority of affected workers are from its Detroit Factory Zero EV plant and the Ultium Cells LLC battery plant in Ohio and Tennessee.

From Reuters

Wells Fargo: severance likely to rise in fourth quarter
Bank will roll out AI gradually over the next year and beyond
More efficiencies to come from AI, CEO says
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab expects more cuts to its workforce and sees higher severance expenses in the current fourth quarter, CEO Charlie Scharf said on Tuesday, adding that artificial intelligence was set to change the way its business works.
"We have gone through the budgeting process, and even pre-artificial intelligence, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year," Scharf said on the sidelines of a Goldman Sachs financial services conference.

I’d love to know how much money is being burned on that hallucinating mess, and how many people were pushed out specifically “because of AI.” Sure, most cuts were really about offshoring, but some people absolutely were replaced in the name of AI, and the productivity expectations tied to it keep creeping up. It’s about time people noticed that, in most cases, AI just drains time and energy. Replace people? Good luck relying on a machine that can’t give you the same answer twice.

AI now affects one in four jobs worldwide and could trigger the largest workforce displacement in modern history. An estimated 30–50% of office jobs may be replaced or heavily reshaped within five years. Are we prepared? Are our leaders prepared? Do we have a plan to retrain workers for the new labor market?

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article313429763.html

Meta has acquired AI-wearables startup Limitless, maker of a pendant-style device that records and transcribes real-world conversations, as the social media giant doubles down on efforts to build AI-enabled consumer hardware.

https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-acquires-ai-wearables-startup-limitless-2025-12-05/

1k days?

Dan wants Ai displace Verizon employees within 1000 days per his comments on his all hands call. Time to jump off the sinking ship before then.

Artificial Intelligence is being promoted as the next great engine of prosperity. AT&T, like many others, insists that AI will be a job creator, a force that opens new opportunities and drives innovation. But let’s be honest. If AI is as successful as its architects hope, it will never generate more jobs than it destroys.

The entire purpose of AI investment is efficiency. It is designed to automate, to optimize, to eliminate human error, and ultimately to eliminate human labor. If after billions in research and infrastructure AI does not eliminate millions of jobs, it will be judged a failure. That is the paradox. Success for AI means displacement on a scale society has never seen.

This is not alarmism. It is simple math. Every breakthrough in automation has reduced the need for human workers. AI is not just another tool. It is a general-purpose technology capable of replacing cognitive, creative, and managerial tasks once thought untouchable. When machines can write, analyze, negotiate, and even empathize, what remains for us?

The consequences go far beyond unemployment statistics. Work is not just a paycheck. It is the backbone of civil society. It structures our days, gives us purpose, and ties us to communities. Strip away meaningful employment for millions, and you do not just create economic instability. You unravel the social fabric itself.

If AI succeeds, we face a collapse of civil society:

• Mass displacement of workers across industries, not only manufacturing but also white-collar and professional roles
• Erosion of identity and purpose as people lose the roles that anchor them in society
• Concentration of wealth and power as the benefits of AI accrue to a handful of corporations and investors
• Political instability as inequality deepens and trust in institutions evaporates

We cannot afford to be lulled by glossy promises of “new jobs” or “reskilling.” History shows that the jobs created by automation are fewer, more specialized, and often inaccessible to those displaced. The scale of AI disruption will dwarf past industrial revolutions.

This is not a distant future. It is unfolding now. The urgency is real. If we do not confront the societal consequences head-on, we risk trading human dignity for technological progress. And that is not progress at all. It is collapse.

Quantum Corp. Sheds 1,500 Jobs Amid AI-Driven Restructuring

• TechCrunch
  Dec 3, 2025, 9:30 AM PT
• Quantum Corp., a leading innovator in AI, announced a significant reduction in its global workforce today, impacting approximately 1,500 employees. The company stated the layoffs are part of a strategic restructuring effort aimed at streamlining operations and shifting focus towards advanced AI development. This move follows a period of aggressive hiring but also increasing automation within its software and data departments. Affected employees will receive severance packages, outplacement services, and extended benefits. Analysts suggest this trend reflects a broader industry pattern where AI advancements are leading to efficiency gains at the cost of human jobs.
  https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/quantum-corp-layoffs-ai-restructuring/

When’s the next round for all those not embracing AI?

There's a weird effort to consolidate knowledge in tech. It absolutely feels like we're all being asked to make everything it takes to do our jobs be documented in a single repository. Whether that's to farm out the work, or train an AI on it is tough to discern, but it sure feels like we're being set up to be replaced by something. In multiple decades of working here, I've never seen a push like this.

Layoffs were set to begin Wednesday at a.i. solutions Inc.'s Huntsville operation, affecting 86 employees at the aerospace engineering firm's Research Park facility.

https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/news/local/layoffs-hit-86-workers-at-ai-solutions-huntsville-facility-on-jan-davis-drive/525-5b19584e-32c7-450a-b616-716540c6e0c3

I don’t know where it started but someone in the banking sector painted a picture with golden rainbow of return via AI. All the banks all jumped on board with such a claim so as to not be left out.

Well its not panned out for any of them at all. Now, to make the shareholders happy $ has to be found. It’ll be done by way of layoffs. The first quarter of next year for all banks will be a bloodbath. All banks that made AI promises will be passing out pink slips left and right.

I don’t know where it started but someone in the banking sector painted a picture with golden rainbow of return via AI. All the banks all jumped on board with such a claim so as to not be left out.

Well its not panned out for any of them at all. Now, to make the shareholders happy $ has to be found. It’ll be done by way of layoffs. The first quarter of next year for all banks will be a bloodbath. All banks that made AI promises will be passing out pink slips left and right.

While a minority of the layoffs discussed during third-quarter earnings were attributed to AI, the AI-related share increased notably through 2025, growing to just above 15% in the quarter. But more broadly, he highlighted that the companies discussing AI in the context of their workforce or layoffs “indeed appear to be pulling back disproportionately on hiring.”

https://fortune.com/2025/12/02/are-layoffs-related-to-ai-job-opening-goldman-sachs/

AI promises were made that it’d save TONS of $ and it has not. Now is the time to pay the piper and there are shareholder expectations to be met. They are expecting lots of cheddar on the promises made. So, you have to recoup that money from somewhere.
Lay people off + a reduction in force by way of attrition. Turn up the heat, pile on the work and watch people leave which is a big win so that you don’t have to pay out severance.

The best part that is that Jane still gets her extra 20+ million $ bonus….again. As far as Citi upper echelon is concerned, all is right with the world.

Cuts are about squeezing out extra profit, plus a hefty dose of offshoring. They’ll hand us some clunky AI tool we have to babysit like a toddler, and we’ll spend half our time double-checking hallucinations and bad outputs. Yet they’ll still expect us to deliver the work of five people. It’s a convenient excuse, but it’s hardly convincing.

My manager has confirmed that “performance layoffs” will be implemented if the launch of Goosehead’s new AI Lily is successful. That’s why everyone in service was written up for something, to set the scene for firings that are designed to cut costs. That’s also why RTO is slated for February, to cut more staff. Charl Lombard and his McKinsey ilk are behind this nonsense, thinking that hold times will be improved by Lily and then they can cull the flock. Yeah, we’ll see

https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/banking-technology/ai-will-reduce-banks-headcount-get-over-it-193732

Trying sh---y AI into performance is a new low.

AI is a tool, and a pretty limited one at that. It can’t replace humans, and it still needs constant oversight. Probabilistic models can’t deliver consistently reliable results. What’s driving the cuts is the usual mix - greed, poor leadership decisions, offshoring, and a rough economy. And if anyone at the top truly thinks AI can replace the work we do, it’s going to turn into yet another very expensive misjudgment.

It’s all offshoring. Or, in some cases, cutting roles that are just gone forever while dumping the workload on fewer and fewer people. I really wish they’d stop excusing profit-maximizing cuts and offshoring by slapping an AI label on everything. It feels like gaslighting at the highest level.

Is anyone left? #robocollege

https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-phoenix-education-partners-reports-q4-2025-growth-stock-dips-93CH-4371849

• Maryland layoffs rise nearly 30%, reflecting nationwide job cut trends.
• In a report, AI was the second most cited reason for job cuts in October.
• Federal DOGE cuts accounted for over 300,000 job losses earlier this year.
• Experts say AI will replace some roles but create new types of jobs.

https://thedailyrecord.com/2025/11/21/maryland-layoffs-ai-job-cuts-2025/

And that's supposed to be the future. There really isn't any rhyme or reason to this thing.

Anyone versed in artificial intelligence can fairly easily train AI to create power point slides, Excel spreadsheet s, create budgets, and even sit in on meeting calls take notes and parrot back to worker bees.

The real work is done by these so called "leader's" staff.

What say you; are you in agreement?

Will AI qualify as an external event is the question. If so, expect large surpluses in q1 or q2 in 2026.

"The update came just a few days after IBM disclosed similar job cuts. [...] He points to IBM as an example: the company cut 8,000 HR and admin positions while hiring engineers and salespeople. “That tells you where they think value lives now. Routine work gets automated. Complex work stays human.”" https://nearshoreamericas.com/u-s-layoffs-surge-and-blaming-ai-is-part-of-the-smokescreen/

ai fleet, an austin trucking startup, laid off nearly 60 workers after loosing a key supplier on oct 31. the company said the situation was unforseeable, so they couldnt give the usual 60-day warning required by federal law. the layoffs started nov 4 and effected drivers and office staff at their downtown location. ai fleet uses artifical intelligence to automate trucking operations and raised $21 million in 2021 after moving from new york to austin.Retry

Just a heads-up, Compucom did another mass layoff last week. The company is massively struggling as they cant seem to get stable against competors who want to win their contracts. With their AI claims not actually coming to fruition (nothing is active) and their FLO charting system just being PowerBi reskinned... Basically all of last year was a bust, everything they have and their endeavors are all smoke and the leadership can't figure out how to right the ship with India teams as their main provider at this point while they retired while employed. Maybe next year.

Big trouble for Dell right now as the AI oasis is an actual mirage. Severe cost cutting is about to happen with massive layoffs about to hit.

Affirm's CEO is -

Naive.

Automation.

RPA - Robotic Process Automation (will continue) to replace entry-level white-collar jobs

RPA has (always) been a (Large) part of (Global) manufacturing.

AI robots (will continue) to replace employees in manufacturing as it grows.

The Unemployment rate (will rise) over time because of it, it should show even more so; over the next several years.

The Trump thesis is (Totally Wrong) for bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. (employee-wise).

Remember, AI does (not) pay Tax revenue; employees do.

Reference the exponentially rising U.S. National debt of $38.2 Trillion a year (current) in which U.S. taxpayers pay $969 Billion in Interest (almost a Trillion a year) to outside Investors (U.S. based, Japan, China; etc.) per usdebtclock.

Just think, this round of Verizon layoffs have nothing to do with Artifcial Intelligence. Once AI and its resulting streamlining of required human resources takes hold at Verizon the possibilities for recurring downsizing are highly likely.

May be time for VZ'ers to seriously start looking for a more trade based occupation.

The next wave isn’t some mystery, it’s already baked into our strategy. When leadership pivots this hard into AI, it isn’t because they suddenly care about “efficiency.” It’s because they’re building a structure where human labor becomes optional.

Once the next round is done and AI systems hit their next iteration milestone, the company will need another injection of savings to justify the spend. That’s when the follow-up layoff is planned. Everyone will be surprised. It won't be because the market shifted overnight. Because massive automation projects always demand a second cut to “realize value" it's the only way we make the money from it.

And the pattern is predictable:
• automate what you can,
• offshore what you can’t,
• shrink the org until the balance sheet looks cleaner.

People keep saying, “AI can’t replace us.” But that’s exactly what these systems are being trained to do, absorb workflows, mimic decisions, and reduce headcount. It won’t replace everyone, but it will replace enough roles to hit whatever targets leadership promised the board.

We’re watching a slow-motion restructuring disguised as innovation. Employees feel it long before leadership admits it. Pretending otherwise doesn’t protect anyone, it just blindsides people who could’ve been preparing.

Leadership has already set this in motion and they know the next outcome but they're going to work you harder than ever so the AI gets trained on good data practices as you all help to make the AI perfect.

At least we don't see any government regulators coming down to regulate AI and save jobs....oh yeah, probably because the top AI company's own the AI conversation right now and they need to move fast before they lose control.

Good luck to all

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/in-the-age-of-ai-ceos-quietly-signal-that-layoffs-are-a-badge-of-honor/ar-AA1QqxWA

In today’s CEO Daily: Geoff Colvin on how CEOs are becoming bolder about replacing human workers with AI.
The big story: White House considers reducing tariffs on food imports.
The markets: Down bad.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. The wave of layoff announcements over the past few weeks is telling us something, most importantly, something that isn’t as easily measured as the number of jobs eliminated. It’s a change in the business environment. We can see this especially in big-company culture, a shift in what is OK and even virtuous to say out loud. Just maybe it’s signaling a new norm for employment and leadership. At its foundation, of course, is AI, regardless of whether companies say so directly.

Over the past two weeks. we’ve learned that Amazon will eliminate 14,000 jobs with plans to eliminate more. Target will cut 1,800 corporate jobs, the company’s biggest layoff in a decade. United Parcel Service reported it had eliminated a staggering 48,000 jobs so far this year. Verizon will lay off 15,000. Nestlé said it will cut 16,000 jobs, mostly white-collar, in the next two years. Why all those mega-layoff announcements in just a few weeks? The usual reasons don’t explain it. The economy hasn’t suddenly changed significantly. Companies could conceivably be bracing for a recession, though it’s far from clear when or if that might arrive; the Wall Street Journal’s October survey of economists shows growth increasing next year. The traditional season for general “slimming-down” layoffs is December and January.

The obvious explanation is AI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had already warned employees what was coming: “In the next few years,” he announced in June, Amazon “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.” The recent announcement emphasized “removing layers.” Target COO Michael Fiddelke (becoming CEO in February) didn’t say “AI,” but he said the company had “too many layers and overlapping work” and would “accelerate technology.” JPMorgan Chase isn’t announcing layoffs but is taking a stance to avoid hiring even as the company expects to grow. The company has “a very strong bias against having the reflexive response to any given need to hire more people,” CFO Jeremy Barnum told analysts recently. “There are definitely productivity tailwinds from AI.”

Note the language. It isn’t defensive or apologetic. Just the opposite—it’s direct and confident. Among Fortune 500 CEOs, having fewer employees is becoming a badge of honor. Call the new model Human Capital Lite, or from employees’ perspective, Right Sizing, Left Standing.

In January 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year when there’s a one-person billion-dollar company—which would have been unimaginable without AI and now will happen.”We’re not there yet, and we may never go there. But we’re getting closer.—Geoff Colvin

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

any information how many were laid off in PPD and when and if there’s a 2nd wave?

Total head count by Q1 2026 will be over 35K employees accross whole company. That’s been confirmed by higher ups in my department.

They are mostly going after call centers and stores. AI implementation.

• Band 3 employee