Greater than 50,000 tech workers have misplaced their jobs to this point this yr. 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 a lot of their obligations. And AI doesn’t draw a wage.
To date this yr, greater than 50,000 tech staff have misplaced their jobs, and employers say AI instruments are making it simpler to chop workers.
Whereas layoffs started final yr, firms have accelerated the method in 2026 by counting on AI to interchange staff in roles resembling software program testing and customer support, in keeping with employers.
The development reveals no indicators of slowing down as firms overhaul their operations to include AI, which may carry out duties with out relaxation or grievance.
There’s one other aspect to this story. At the very least one laid off engineer informed 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 number of massive tech firms are embracing automation.
The No. 1 factor is firms are attempting to undertake AI, they usually’re utilizing AI to automate jobs … [Companies are] actually taking a look at the place they’ll change folks with AI fashions.
Then there are the individuals who don’t assume it is a enormous deal. Like some economists, who say that that is simply one other industrial revolution, solely this time it’s occurring actually quick and includes numerous computer systems.
However these new jobs require very completely different abilities, which makes it onerous for employers and pundits to inform laid-off staff that they need to merely “reskill.”
I talked to some tech workers this week they usually’re feeling each thrilled and terrified about AI. Right here’s one developer: “What AI can do is wonderful. However what’s form of terrifying is how briskly it’s making us pointless.”
The phrase that jumps out there’s “pointless.” For a very long time, working in tech was seen as a certain factor. Now it doesn’t appear that approach in any respect.
Which brings us to the apparent query: Now what?
It’s approach 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 numerous folks’s lives.
Perhaps the problem isn’t that machines are taking our jobs. Perhaps the problem is that we weren’t ready for how briskly they’d do it.
If that is the beginning of an extended story, that’s scary. However it’s additionally thrilling.
Buckle up.
