Companies Are Firing Thousands of Workers to Pay for AI They Might Not Even Need

Here is a number that should make your jaw drop: companies around the world are expected to spend $2.5 trillion on AI this year. That is trillion with a T. And according to a new analysis, a huge chunk of that money is coming from one very specific place: firing people.

But here is the twist that nobody is talking about. According to investment expert Brad Conger, AI is not actually replacing most of these jobs. Instead, companies are using AI as a convenient excuse to cut costs, and then funneling that saved money into AI spending. It is a corporate shell game.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey (yes, the Twitter guy) already publicly admitted that AI was the reason his company slashed headcount. Meanwhile, U.S. unemployment has crept up to 4.4%, and the real number, including people who gave up looking for work, is nearly 8%.

The economy is caught in a strange loop: companies fire workers to buy AI, claim AI made the workers unnecessary, then use the savings to buy more AI. Whether this cycle leads to a productivity boom or an economic crisis is the multi-trillion dollar question nobody can answer yet. As reported by Fortune.

Source: Fortune