Greater than 50,000 tech workers have misplaced their jobs to date this 12 months. Requested why, most will say the identical factor: synthetic intelligence.
Not as a result of AI rose up and destroyed their workplaces, however as a result of it assumed lots of their obligations. And AI doesn’t draw a wage.
To date this 12 months, greater than 50,000 tech employees have misplaced their jobs, and employers say AI instruments are making it simpler to chop workers.
Whereas layoffs started final 12 months, companies have accelerated the process in 2026 by relying on AI to replace workers in roles comparable to software program testing and customer support, in keeping with employers.
The pattern reveals no indicators of slowing down as corporations overhaul their operations to include AI, which may carry out duties with out relaxation or criticism.
There’s one other ingredient to this story. No less than one laid off engineer instructed me, “I helped practice the AI that changed me.”
Ironic? Sure. Based on firm executives, it’s one thing else: the inevitable march of progress.
This isn’t a one-off factor. A variety of massive tech corporations are embracing automation.
The No. 1 factor is corporations try to undertake AI, and so they’re utilizing AI to automate jobs … [Companies are] actually the place they will substitute individuals with AI fashions.
Then there are the individuals who don’t assume this can be a big deal. Like some economists, who say that that is simply one other industrial revolution, solely this time it’s occurring actually quick and entails a number of computer systems.
However these new jobs require very totally different expertise, which makes it exhausting for employers and pundits to inform laid-off employees that they need to merely “reskill.”
I talked to some tech workers this week and so they’re feeling each thrilled and terrified about AI. Right here’s one developer: “What AI can do is superb. However what’s sort of terrifying is how briskly it’s making us pointless.”
The phrase that jumps out there may be “pointless.” For a very long time, working in tech was seen as a positive factor. Now it doesn’t appear that means in any respect.
Which brings us to the plain query: Now what?
It’s means too quickly to inform. For now, we’re left with a way of surprise blended with unease. AI isn’t a villain, however it’s disrupting a number of individuals’s lives.
Perhaps the difficulty isn’t that machines are taking our jobs. Perhaps the difficulty is that we weren’t ready for how briskly they’d do it.
If that is the beginning of a protracted story, that’s scary. But it surely’s additionally thrilling.
Buckle up.
