U.S. Firms Cutting Staff With AI While Claiming It's Not Because of AI

▲ Employment in the AI Era

As anxiety spreads that artificial intelligence (AI) will steal jobs, U.S. companies are actively distancing layoffs from AI, according to the internet media outlet Axios on the 20th local time.

Recently, e-commerce platform Etsy laid off 220 employees while drawing a line, stating, "We are not cutting staff because of AI."

At the same time, however, the company acknowledged that AI is changing the skills it needs and the capabilities of its employees.

Microsoft (MS) also eliminated 4,800 jobs last month, emphasizing that "they are not being replaced by AI."

However, MS acknowledged that AI is changing how work is performed and has made it possible to automate certain tasks.

While acknowledging that AI is bringing changes to work methods and organizations, they are effectively avoiding giving the impression that human jobs are being replaced by AI.

In the past, companies often touted how many personnel they cut through AI as an indicator of productivity improvement.

Swedish fintech firm Klarna explained in 2024 that its AI assistant was performing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents, stating, "Not only can we do more with fewer people, but we can do a lot more."

Salesforce, the world's largest customer relationship management (CRM) software company, also stated last year that with the help of AI, it was able to reduce its customer support staff from 9,000 to about 5,000.

However, analysts suggest that the recent trend of companies distancing layoffs from AI stems from growing social concerns over job insecurity caused by AI.

In a recent poll by CBS News and YouGov, 61% of U.S. adults expected that AI would reduce economic opportunities for most people.

In particular, a Pew Research Center survey showed that 73% of Americans under 30 expect AI to decrease jobs over the next 20 years.

In fact, layoffs explicitly attributed to AI are also increasing.

According to a July report by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI ranked as the top reason for layoffs by U.S. companies for five consecutive months.

So far this year, the scale of layoffs announced by U.S. companies citing AI has reached about 113,000, accounting for 24% of all layoffs.

※