Companies cutting staff for AI may be making a short-sighted mistake

Companies slashing headcount for AI are jumping the gun (and destroying their culture at the same time). We have all seen the headlines and felt the general hiring slowdown. Some companies (especially big tech) are aggressively cutting staff, assuming AI will instantly replace those roles. They're ditching real people for perceived future value. Are they making a short-sighted mistake? The data suggests yes. While the loudest companies are making cuts, a recent survey shows that only 9% of CEOs actually plan to reduce their workforce due to AI this year. Meanwhile, 55% expect to increase hiring as a direct result of it. Why the disconnect? Because the executives who jumped the gun are learning very quickly that AI is not an instant, plug-and-play productivity hack. Many CEOs admit they aren't seeing a return on their AI investments yet because integrating it into existing workflows is incredibly sluggish. It takes time to fundamentally revise business processes to actually benefit from the technology. In other words, they can't just plug in software and eliminate staff (this sounds like a story we've heard before). You can't just buy a software license and fire your team. The smartest leaders aren't using AI to replace their people; but they are using it to make their current people more productive. And they are actively hiring talent who knows how to manage, refine, and secure these new tools. Agile, adaptable humans who can best utilize the new technology. The companies who are treating AI as a quick headcount reduction strategy can say goodbye to their culture, because they're sacrificing their people at the first hint of the potential of saving money. Are you focusing on replacing roles, or redesigning them? Let's discuss. Axios, KPMG US #FutureOfWork #ArtificialIntelligence #HiringTrends #TalentStrategy #KandorGroup

AI isn't reducing our workload. It's just relocating it. We're firing humans for AI that can't do the job, then quietly rehiring them at lower salaries and calling it innovation. The data is stark: 55% of companies that laid off workers for AI now say it wasn't worth it Workers report higher decision fatigue and error rates from constant AI supervision Forrester predicts half of AI-driven layoffs will be reversed Quality drops. Customers notice I'm watching smart leaders wrestle with AI brain fry, the cognitive exhaustion that comes from supervising systems that were supposed to free us up. Phase 1: "AI will do this faster/cheaper than humans" Phase 2: Fire humans, deploy AI Phase 3: Realize someone still needs to validate, correct and stay accountable for AI output Phase 4: Quietly rehire humans - often offshore, always at lower salaries The problem isn’t the technology. It’s treating AI as a cost-cutting tool instead of a capability multiplier. Stop asking "What can we eliminate?" Start asking "What can we enable?” Here's what intentional AI integration actually looks like: Map the Non-Negotiables: Where trust, relationships and accountability are the moat. Design the Mix: AI accelerates the work. Humans own the decisions. Batch Review: Set quality thresholds, escalation rules and review cadences. Industrialize the Process: The real advantage isn’t the tool. It’s the operating system around it. I’ve helped scale revenue from $0 → $30M and $15M → $300M, and the same rule always applies: Tools don’t scale companies. Disciplined systems do. Curious: Where has AI actually increased productivity in your organization… …and where has it quietly increased cognitive load? #AI #Leadership #FutureOfWork #GTM #RevOps #BusinessStrategy

The narrative around AI often feels like a PR wrapper, masking the real operational goals. Companies declare AI's value, but rarely detail its actual application. The core drivers remain consistent: simplifying processes, optimizing projects, protecting margins, and ensuring sustainable growth. Layoffs, while a company's prerogative, should not be disguised by AI when the reality is replacement. Using AI as a scapegoat for workforce reductions is disingenuous and shows a lack of respect for employees, investors, and customers. Transparency about AI's role in these decisions is crucial. If companies are genuinely replacing roles with AI, they should be able to show the specifics. #AI #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #Transparency #Workforce

AI Is Not Replacing People. But Panic Hiring Is Breaking Teams. Over the last few months, I’ve been seeing a pattern across organizations. AI tools are improving productivity — no doubt. But the response from many companies? • Redesigning roles to combine 2–3 jobs into one • Letting go of existing employees quickly • Expecting a “multi-skilled, AI-ready” replacement overnight On paper, it looks like efficiency. In reality, it’s creating hidden damage. What actually happens next? • Institutional knowledge walks out the door • Hiring cycles stretch for months • The “perfect candidate” is hard to find • Salary expectations increase significantly • Team morale quietly drops And most importantly — 👉 Business momentum slows down. This is not AI transformation. This is panic-driven restructuring. The real opportunity with AI is not to replace people instantly, but to upgrade capability intelligently. Because the strongest teams today are not: “AI vs Humans” They are: 👉 AI + Humans, working with clarity of roles and expectations The companies getting this right are not firing faster. They are: • Redesigning roles thoughtfully • Upskilling existing talent • Hiring selectively where needed • Protecting knowledge while evolving capability In the race to optimize,we may be overlooking something critical: 👉 We don’t scale by removing people. 👉 We scale by enhancing what our people can do. Would love to hear how others are approaching this shift. #AI #FutureOfWork #HiringStrategy #GCC #Leadership #TalentStrategy #ScalingTeams #PeopleAndCulture #Gleameon

Responsible AI Adoption Starts With Workforce Strategy Many organisations approach artificial intelligence primarily as a technology investment. But in practice, AI transformation succeeds or fails based on leadership and workforce strategy. Responsible organisations are already taking several important steps: 📈 Conducting workforce impact assessments before deploying AI 🗣️ Communicating early and openly about how work may change 🎯 Investing in reskilling and redeployment 🚩 Treating layoffs as a last resort These actions help build trust, transparency and inclusion, while creating the psychological safety employees need to engage with change. AI will undoubtedly reshape the labour market. But the organisations that succeed will not simply be those that adopt AI fastest. They will be the ones whose leadership recognises that AI transformation is fundamentally a people strategy. #Leadership #AI #FutureOfWork #Trust #Transparency #PsychologicalSafety #WorkforceStrategy #HumanCentricLeadership

AI isnt taking jobs its taking blame for them. Most studies I come across show an increase in skilled work to do thanks to AI. An increase in the amount of cycles that can happen per day, per week, per quarter, etc. Also decrease in how long will it take to implement new initiatives leading to the companies next stage of growth and hiring coming more frequent and closer in between. Overall each AI enabled employee can pull their wait and earn their keep faster and easier. Are your business cycles keeping up with others and are your staff helping or slowing the transition to an AI enabled workforce? #ANewWayOfWork

AI AI ….Oh!🧐 Before defaulting to blaming AI for layoffs Here’s the uncomfortable truth few in the C-suite want to say out loud: Most of these “AI-driven workforce transformations” aren’t AI-driven at all. They’re over-hiring corrections wearing a tech costume. Let me explain. Between 2020–2022, companies went on hiring sprees like it was Black Friday for headcount. Growth at all costs. Hire now, figure it out later. Then reality hit. Revenue slowed. Margins tightened. Boards started asking hard questions. But instead of saying: → “We scaled too fast” → “We hired ahead of demand” → “Our forecasting was off” They said: “AI is replacing these roles.” Convenient, right? Here’s how you spot the difference: A company genuinely leveraging AI → hires differently, reskills teams, redeploys talent. A company using AI as a scapegoat → cuts thousands, ships the same work offshore, and drops “AI transformation” into the press release. One is strategy. The other is spin. The irony? Blaming AI actually hurts real AI adoption. It creates fear instead of trust. Resistance instead of readiness. If you’re a leader reading this — your people aren’t stupid. They can tell the difference between innovation and a rebrand of cost-cutting. Own the correction. Drop the disguise. Your credibility depends on it. ♻️ Repost if you think honesty > #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Layoffs #TechLayoffs #HiringTrends #WorkforcePlanning #CorporateCulture #HonestLeadership #Innovation #TruthInTech #CEOmindset #HumanResources #TalentStrategy #DigitalTransformation #AIhype #StartupLife #LinkedInCreator #SaturdayThoughts

Did you see the Jim Cramer interview with Jensen Huang? Cramer: “We’re seeing companies say they’re laying people off because of AI… should people be worried that AI is going to take their jobs?” Huang: “You’re not going to lose your job to AI… but you are going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.” Then with a challenging call to leaders of those companies with layoffs, he adds, "companies with imagination... will do more with less. Companies that are... just out of ideas have nothing else to do, they have no reason to imagine [for something] greater than they are." Interesting how a simple shift in mindset can make all the difference: instead of leveraging AI to do the same work with a smaller workforce, imagine leveraging your human workforce with AI to expand opportunities.

With AI-powered intelligence tools, small teams are now achieving BIG results faster than ever. Dorsey predicts companies that don’t adapt will fall behind as AI reshapes workforce efficiency. Are you ready to evolve? As AI reshapes the labor market, how do we ensure no one is left behind? We can’t stop the workforce shift, but we can ensure people still have a job by unlocking new career pathways and enabling skills-based pivoting. Jobago.ai makes outplacement economically viable for the entire workforce — supporting people and protecting society. #outplacement #futureofwork #workforceresilience #hrstrategy

So many AI headlines repeating the same thing, so when you see a new one it grabs your attention. 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜. https://lnkd.in/eqUiyKBG How can that be true when the 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 says something different? The gap between 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 and what's actually happening in the labor market is where most organizations live right now — genuinely excited about what AI can do, genuinely uncertain about what to do next. That's not a criticism. It's the honest state of the market. 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗱𝗶𝗱. The BSPs I talk to are there. They see the potential clearly. The question isn't whether to move — it's 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, and 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 for the investment to actually land. That playbook doesn't exist yet. So we're building it — grounded in our own internal AI journey, what we're learning directly from our customers, and the early signals from companies who have pioneered real success. #AI #Broadband #BSP #DigitalTransformation #Calix