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The ongoing dialogue regarding the ever-imminent displacement of white-collar workers by AI is\u00a0predicated on the assumption that the technology will become as skilled as the very workers it threatens to displace, thereby cutting labor costs. But a new study found that\u2019s not quite what\u2019s playing out in many companies that have carried out AI-related layoffs.<\/p>\n
A survey of 350 global business executives with an annual revenue of at least $1 billion by the research and advisory firm Gartner found that many have reduced their workforce irrespective of AI adoption. While 80% of those surveyed who have piloted an AI or autonomous technology have reported workforce reductions, the businesses cut jobs due to automation regardless of whether the technology was actually generating returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking only at layoffs is shortsighted in terms of getting value from AI,\u201d Helen Poitevin, VP analyst at Gartner and a key researcher of the study, told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cChasing value only through headcount reduction is likely to lead most organizations down a path of limited returns.\u201d<\/p>\n The looming threat of AI automation has many employees fearing for their jobs. But a growing number of business leaders and economists are skeptical that the technology will actually spur layoffs. Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok recently argued the Jevons paradox: a 19th century theory that explained why the demand for coal increased even as steam engines became more efficient and coal became cheaper. The paradox also applies to the AI age, Slok argued, and it predicts the technology will lead to more <\/em>jobs, not less.\u00a0<\/p>\n Poitevin said the companies reporting high ROI were not the same ones reporting AI-related workforce reductions. In fact, workforce reduction rates were nearly equal for those reporting higher ROI and those with smaller returns or even worsened outcomes from autonomous operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not where the value is,\u201d she said of layoffs. \u201cThat\u2019s not where the productivity gains are going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, the study found companies with the highest gains were those using AI as a form of \u201cpeople amplification,\u201d implementing the technology to make workers more productive rather than outright replacing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a growing divide today in how global business leaders are approaching AI adoption. In a separate Gartner survey of CEOs and other business executives, about one-third said they expect autonomous AI to help humans make decisions, but stop short of making those decisions independently. But another 27% said they expect AI to do exactly that, with minimal or no human involvement.<\/p>\n Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently walked back his controversial claim from last year that AI would wipe out half of white-collar entry-level roles. He instead said AI could augment work, referring to the Jevons paradox, though cautioning that AI is evolving at a faster rate than previous technologies and could consequently lead to different outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you strain a system more than, you know, than it\u2019s usually strained, it\u2019s possible you get these weird behaviors and this big disruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Layoffs attributed to AI have become a common practice, at least across Silicon Valley. Outplacement services company Challenger, Gray and Christmas found that AI was the leading reason for layoffs in March and April, and the total number of layoffs attributed to AI hit 49,135 for the full year. That\u2019s nearly as much as the total for all AI-related layoffs the firm reported in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, AI innovation isn\u2019t the sole reason for layoffs in this category; layoffs attributed to heightened AI spending has become a trend across hyperscalers allocating a high percentage of their budgets on the AI infrastructure buildout. As a result, companies like Microsoft and Meta have said they needed to cut headcount to free up cash. There\u2019s also the possibility that many of these layoffs are attributed to AI but are in reality inspired by other underlying motivations in a stunt known as \u201cAI washing.\u201d That\u2019s what Sam Altman said in an interview earlier from February.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the exact percentage is, but there\u2019s some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, and then there\u2019s some real displacement by AI of different kinds of jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Poitevin said the data shows these layoffs, even if related to AI, appear to be a way companies are testing the waters with AI rather than initiating a structural reset.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to us to be a kind of one-time exercise by many in small amounts,\u201d she said, \u201cbut not what translates to getting full ROI from their AI investment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #AIdriven #layoffs #arent #generating #returns #companies #expected #study #finds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ongoing dialogue regarding the ever-imminent displacement of white-collar workers by AI is\u00a0predicated on the assumption that the technology will become as skilled as the very workers it threatens to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[361,1588,1972,1292,3602,3189,6615,6616,430,863,3135,3188,602],"class_list":["post-4251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-ai-agents","tag-aidriven","tag-arent","tag-companies","tag-expected","tag-finds","tag-gartner","tag-generating","tag-jobs","tag-layoffs","tag-returns","tag-study","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Where companies see returns with AI implementation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The current landscape of AI-related layoffs<\/strong><\/h2>\n