AI’s Rise Helps Fuel Uptick in Tech Layoffs

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a role in recent tech sector job cuts.

Layoffs in the tech industry for the year exceeded 100,000 as of July 12, Seeking Alpha (SA) reported Sunday (July 14), citing data from the tracker Layoffs.fyi.

Among the most recent layoffs were at Intuit, maker of products such as TurboTax and QuickBooks, which announced last week it was cutting 1,800 roles amid a new focus on AI.

But as the SA report noted, Intuit isn’t replacing those employees with AI bots, but instead planning to hire the equal number of workers with AI expertise. The report also cited the 2024 Economic Report of the President, which says up to a fifth of America’s workforce is at high exposure to AI-related job displacement.

Other companies cutting jobs as they focus on AI are UiPath, which is eliminating 420 positions, and OpenText, which is cutting 1,200 jobs but planning to eventually hire 800 sales, professional services and engineering workers.

The report follows recent findings from Citi showing that 54% of jobs in the banking sector have a high potential for automation, while another 12% could be augmented by AI.

“AI-powered clients could increase price competition in the finance sector. The balance of power may shift,” the banking giant said in its introduction to the report.

“AI may be adopted faster by digitally native, cloud-based firms, such as FinTechs and BigTechs, with agile incumbent banks following fast. Many incumbents, weighed down by tech and culture debt, could lag in AI adoption, losing market share.”

The report also contends that a move to a “bot-powered world” raises issues around things like compliance, security, regulation and ethics.

“Since AI models are known to hallucinate and create information that does not exist, organizations run the risk of AI chatbots going fully autonomous and negatively affecting the business financially or its reputation,” Citi said.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS in April interviewed Javed Khan, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Collaboration, who shared his thoughts on how AI is already transforming the work landscape and what we can expect in the years ahead.

“A commonality with most technological advancements throughout history is that they ultimately delivered a significantly better experience than before. AI will be no different,” Khan said. “In fact, we’re already seeing the benefits that AI can bring to the workplace and beyond, empowering us all to reimagine how we connect and collaborate.”