AI jobs crisis grows as layoffs hit workers across multiple sectors

OPINION:

“A need to become leaner.” “Becoming more efficient.” Whatever excuses corporations use to lay off hardworking Americans, one thing is clear: Artificial intelligence is coming for our livelihoods — not tomorrow, but today.

This is not a 2030 prediction. We are seeing an AI-caused jobs crisis unfold in real time. Meta recently hinted at plans to fire 15,000 employees, more than 20% of its workforce, as it ramps up historic spending on AI. Overseas, Finland-based Nordea Bank cut about 1,500 jobs because of AI, and British banking group Close Brothers shed hundreds more. Career experts are advising young workers to pick up the trades, as members of Generation Z ditch college degrees to bet on blue-collar careers.

Because only about a quarter of workers use AI regularly on the job, it is easy to underestimate its disruptive power. Wall Street Journal expert Greg Ip said Big Tech has “never caused a job apocalypse,” but with the way things are going, it is about to happen.

We have never seen technology like AI. This is not the creation of social media or even the launch of the internet. Silicon Valley is working on technology that can at least match human capabilities (artificial general intelligence) or potentially even surpass the sum of human cognitive abilities by a wide margin (artificial superintelligence).

The numbers don’t lie. According to the new database JobLoss.AI, more than 90,000 job losses globally were linked to AI, tens of thousands in the United States alone. One year ago, that number was about 2,000, marking a 4,400% increase within 12 months. The trendline is moving in only one direction.

What about one year from now? We have gone from an “AI jobs apocalypse” narrative to the early signs of mass disruption. Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce are readily trimming staff, and capabilities are rapidly advancing.

What happens when AI becomes more intelligent and much faster than humans? People are just starting to ask these questions.

The writing is on the wall, whether we see it or not. AI job cuts are not one-offs; they are part of a broader trend of human displacement. If that means cutting costs, then companies won’t rule it out. After all, Silicon Valley CEOs have been clear that AI is meant to replace human workers.

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From U.S. policymakers to regular citizens, now is the time for everyone to wake up. Just as we eventually recognized the consequences of globalization for domestic manufacturing, we must reckon with the fact that AI job loss is imminent.

Offshoring moved millions of American jobs abroad, but AI could destroy an estimated 300 million jobs around the world, or nearly 10% of the global workforce. Even the Industrial Revolution pales in comparison with the reckoning ahead.

AI’s economic impact is becoming a daily topic of conversation on Capitol Hill. The American people are starting to demand answers from their elected officials about where they stand and what they intend to do about it.

The clock is ticking, and the jobs are disappearing.

• Brendan Steinhauser is CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the implications of advanced artificial intelligence.

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