99% of executives expect AI to trigger layoffs within two years, survey finds

[midian182]

A hot potato: Still think the AI-driven jobs apocalypse has been overblown? A new report that interviewed almost 1,000 executives found that 99% expect AI to lead to layoffs in the short term. Moreover, most executives believe that redesigning work to incorporate AI and automation will drive the greatest returns, while just 32% say their workforce can optimally combine human and machine capabilities.

Consulting firm Mercer's Global Talent Trends report covers several AI-related topics. The most depressing finding is that virtually every one of the 825 C-suite leaders who participated expects AI to lead to at least some headcount reduction in the next two years.

It was recently reported that tech sector job losses in early 2026 have already surged past 100,000, with AI being a major factor in most cases. Unfortunately, this latest survey suggests we might not have seen the worst of it.

Interestingly, the report also found that a depleted workforce, worries about AI-driven job displacement, and concerns over inequities in AI access have led to a collapse in the number of employees "thriving." The figure was at 66% in 2024 and has fallen to 44% in 2026. Also, 35% of employees would consider leaving their organization if they felt disadvantaged by unequal access to AI tools or training. This declining motivation is fueling a fall in productivity.

Somewhat paradoxically, 63% of executives believe redesigning work around AI and automation will deliver the greatest returns. That optimism seems a little misplaced given a January survey that found more than half of CEOs who had adopted AI had not seen reduced costs or increased revenue as a result.

When companies first started embedding AI more widely, executives constantly talked about the technology augmenting and helping humans, rather than replacing them. Today, firms such as Block and Meta are more candid about AI-related layoffs, something reflected in the survey: just over three out of 10 execs think their workforce can optimally combine human and machine capabilities.

Another part of the survey looked at drivers influencing C-suite people plans. Digital acceleration, including AI, was the second-highest factor. Somewhat ironically, it sat behind talent scarcity – the top driver.

Despite AI becoming increasingly widespread, sentiment toward the technology is not improving. Direct and indirect job losses keep growing, anger over new data centers is increasing, and AI-generated content in almost any medium is often met with public outcry.

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99% of executives expect AI to trigger layoffs within two years, survey finds

 

[Megalomaniac]

AI is not a bubble.
The people who think it is don't understand it.
AI is going to be the most transformative, disruptive, destructive technology since the introduction of the PC. We are witnessing a new digital, electrical infrastructure with surviellance built-in in its infancy.
I am thankful I will be retiring soon.
I feel bad for Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who are going to suffer a job market, housing market and economy that is akin to them sitting down to a game of monopoly 10 minutes before it ends. They'd be smart to stay away from any job that is computer-heavy and focus on jobs like electricians, plumbers, welding and other supportive infrastructure positions.

 

[winjer]

Should read: "99% of executives want AI to trigger layoffs within two years"

 

[pnntmp]

It's funny how everyone allegedly expects some sort of calamity, but nothing like that is actually happening.

In fact, some of the roles 'experts' consider most at risk, like software engineers and radiologists, have a notable increase in job postings. Some even say radiologists are in acute shortage.

No matter how many surveys with apocalyptic prophecies are published, AI apocalypse is simply not there. It more and more resembles the so called "climate change", another prophesied catastrophe that always remains somewhere in the nebulous future.

 

[bviktor]

AI is not a bubble.
The people who think it is don't understand it.
AI is going to be the most transformative, disruptive, destructive technology since the introduction of the PC. We are witnessing a new digital, electrical infrastructure with surviellance built-in in its infancy.
I am thankful I will be retiring soon.
I feel bad for Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who are going to suffer a job market, housing market and economy that is akin to them sitting down to a game of monopoly 10 minutes before it ends. They'd be smart to stay away from any job that is computer-heavy and focus on jobs like electricians, plumbers, welding and other supportive infrastructure positions.

Says everyone who doesn't actually see the costs and end results of AI, yes. Keep generating pictures of fluffy cats.

Meanwhile, Oracle's bond debt is over $100bn (not a typo).

https://www.fastcompany.com/91545823/oracle-and-the-ai-booms-hidden-debt-bomb

And this is just one single company. This is the hard reality, not "transformation". OpenAI was to spend around $300bn on their ludicrous Stargate project. But it was so ludicrous that even NVIDIA, the biggest company in the world said nuh uh, not going there.

If you think tech companies spending borrowed money in the magnitude of the annual federal budget of Germany (the 3rd biggest in the world) is not a bubble, I really don't know what you think is.

Here's some vibe-coded AI wonder for you, fresh outta oven.

HP BIOS updates are bricking laptops through Windows Update

One case in April involved a ZBook Ultra G1a owner who said a firmware update left the machine unable to start and caused it to freeze completely...

www.techspot.com

It sure does transform our world. To sh*t. Every week we get an article about how a random minor Window update broke another 7 things. Quality at an all time low. But oh it's transformative, so it's alright.

Not a single AI company made profits so far. None. They're not making money, they're bleeding money, and a lot of it. They're all on life support, on investor money. No one knows how to capitalize on it. Because, newsflash, people only like generating fluffy cat pictures until it's free. The investors are getting anxious, but no one wants to pay the bill. And the bill _will_ explode in their faces, it's not an if, it's a when, because that's how debt works. "Just trust the process, it will work, eventually, hopefully" is not a valid market plan, or at least not one that banks will accept as collateral.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

It’s worth noting that much of the job uncertainty and lower employee “thriving” is due to the inflation and recession we’re in (numerically hidden by obscene data center spending).

Often called stag-flation it’s a bad place for any economy - then we’re adding AI’s impact on top of that.

 

[Nobodysfool]

Sounds like a win-win, provided that CEOs and HRs get laid off, too

 

[dangh]

AI is not a bubble.

Internet was not a bubble. Still, dot-com was a bubble and crashed badly. Technology is good, and as is, not a bubble, but AI craziness and financial acrobatics are, and most probably will result in a similar crash.

The issue is, some governments might act like reverse socialists, and use their money (read: their citizen money) to bail corporations up (read: those countries will be full of slaves working for their masters. Not in cotton plantations, just as a low level tax payers with money going to their overlords instead education, health, and so on). Corporatism is something what helped some short painter killing millions, so better to be very, very afraid, as it seems it is back in fashion...

 

[yRaz]

AI is not a bubble.
The people who think it is don't understand it.
AI is going to be the most transformative, disruptive, destructive technology since the introduction of the PC. We are witnessing a new digital, electrical infrastructure with surviellance built-in in its infancy.
I am thankful I will be retiring soon.
I feel bad for Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who are going to suffer a job market, housing market and economy that is akin to them sitting down to a game of monopoly 10 minutes before it ends. They'd be smart to stay away from any job that is computer-heavy and focus on jobs like electricians, plumbers, welding and other supportive infrastructure positions.

If AI works the way capitalists think it will(it won't) then there won't be an economy to pay for the investment.

 

[Endymio]

Says everyone who doesn't actually see the costs and end results of AI, yes. Keep generating pictures of fluffy cats.

Meanwhile, Oracle's bond debt is over $100bn (not a typo).

Learn math. Oracle's bond debt is fraction of their net worth, with their market cap exceeding $550B (as of Friday close). Their debt-equity ratio is actually far better than the average homeowner.

If you think tech companies spending borrowed money in the magnitude of the annual federal budget of Germany is not a bubble, I really don't know what you think is.

Why not learn what these terms mean? A "bubble" is when valuations exceed conceivable returns, and that's not the case here -- which you'd understand if you'd actually read the balance sheet of these AI firms, rather than feeding yourself a steady diet of tech-pop psuedo-journalism.

Here's some vibe-coded AI wonder for you, fresh outta oven. [link deleted]

Why resort to outright disinformation to support your religion anti-AI fervor? Nothing in that firmware release was related to "AI vibe coding".

Not a single AI company made profits so far. None.

Again: stop spreading disinformation. The vast majority of AI-related firms are producing enormous profits ... and not just profits, but operating margins in the 50% range.

 

[Megalomaniac]

If AI works the way capitalists think it will(it won't) then there won't be an economy to pay for the investment.

There will always be an economy. People still need to mine materials for computers. People still need to transport materials globally. People still need to support the infrastructure underlying the technology. What it means is the developing nations get wealthier.

 

[yRaz]

There will always be an economy. People still need to mine materials for computers. People still need to transport materials globally. People still need to support the infrastructure underlying the technology. What it means is the developing nations get wealthier.

And if AI can do everything a human can and noone needs to work, everything essentially becomes free because the means for production exists but noone has any money.

 

[The Talking Tech]

But according to A.I apologists, everything is fine...let's just hope they and their families get to lose their jobs first.

 

[Megalomaniac]

But according to A.I apologists, everything is fine...let's just hope they and their families get to lose their jobs first.

I'll be retiring soon. I have a job AI won't challenege for at least 30 years.
Good Luck to the rest of you dudes.

 

[Endymio]

But according to A.I apologists, everything is fine...let's just hope they and their families get to lose their jobs first.

I'm still demanding the electricity apologists do something about all the candlemakers, ice cutters, lamp-lighters, whale oil merchants, and hundreds of other professions who lost their jobs.

 

[SRB]

I'll be retiring soon. I have a job AI won't challenege for at least 30 years.
Good Luck to the rest of you dudes.

I too, have spent most of my career in a job that AI can't touch, but keep in mind, that's not for lack of trying. This industry has been after the holy grail of having computers and machines figure out what the problems are so they could get rid of the high knowledge and skilled people and replace them with low skilled parts changers. Every attempt the industry has tried has either failed miserably, or increased complexity that made things harder to fix.

The two problems you'll have with AI are illustrated in why using AI for radiology while trying to hire new people. First, the problem of variance. The list of things that can be encountered, and how to adapt to them, is very much beyond what the AI can adapt to. The second is more interesting. Like with programmers who's skills are slipping due to requiring AI to have first crack at writing it. Radiologists are also finding their skills slipping as they look at fewer scans to diagnose then they used to. Couple that with the AI not catching everything, and you wind up with more common and routine issues being caught by AI that were missed under the old system. To a new one where the few corner cases get caught by no one.

 

[The Talking Tech]

I'll be retiring soon. I have a job AI won't challenege for at least 30 years.
Good Luck to the rest of you dudes.

Trust me no job is secured for that long... A.I has exponentially grown at speeds no other technology in human history has seen such a growth in such little time.

But you are safe since you are retiring this year anyways.

 

[acrossthestars]

When companies first started embedding AI more widely, executives constantly talked about the technology augmenting and helping humans, rather than replacing them. Today, firms such as Block and Meta are more candid about AI-related layoffs, something reflected in the survey: just over three out of 10 execs think their workforce can optimally combine human and machine capabilities.

We're finally getting close to a true mask-off moment: AI evangelists are finally conceding the point, which is that, in the best-case scenario, there are no jobs. "Amplifying human productivity" was merely the foot in the door. Making AI unavoidable is merely a means to the end―the endpoint being to impoverish the entire human race and create a permanent underclass of indentured servants, which they will lord over, like tyrant kings.

"That's conspiratorial nonsense!" Is it? If AI is supposed to complement human productivity, which is every implementation of it destroying people's lives, ambitions, career opportunities and, y'know, their will to live? It's not for you. It's for them, the elite: the people who already own everything. This is their world, you just rent space in it. As far as careers go, you don't have one. You are merely a resource to be extracted and then discarded, at a moment's notice.

 

[p51d007]

Blaming AI layoffs on AI?
How many of these layoffs are because of OVERHIRING during the pandemic?
Now, to make stockholders & investors less jittery, perhaps they are blaming
some of the layoffs on "AI".

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Just two more years! Just like nuclear fusion and self driving cars!

Remember when 2025 was going to be the year of all the mass AI layoffs? Then it was 2026? Now its 2028.....

Meanwhile, nvidia's inventory broke another record, far beyond anything they have seen in history, none of these companies see any sort of path to profitability, and half of datacenters have been cancelled.

But sure AI is the future and a fancy google search that hallucinates is going to replace people. Sure bud.

 

[Endymio]

It's not for you. It's for them, the elite: the people who already own everything. This is their world, you just rent space in it. As far as careers go, you don't have one. You are merely a resource to be extracted and then discarded

You know, if you truly believe this juvenile claptrap, nothing is stopping you from finding some like-minded people and creating your own economy. You can grow food, someone else sews clothes, another person can build houses, etc -- and you all barter amongst yourselves. Just make a blood pact that none of you will use AI to help you.

This will though, I warn you, cut into your videogaming time. People use AI tools for the same reason as any other: they save time and increase your productivity.

 

[psycros]

Learn math. Oracle's bond debt is fraction of their net worth, with their market cap exceeding $550B (as of Friday close). Their debt-equity ratio is actually far better than the average homeowner.


Why not learn what these terms mean? A "bubble" is when valuations exceed conceivable returns, and that's not the case here -- which you'd understand if you'd actually read the balance sheet of these AI firms, rather than feeding yourself a steady diet of tech-pop psuedo-journalism.


Why resort to outright disinformation to support your religion anti-AI fervor? Nothing in that firmware release was related to "AI vibe coding".


Again: stop spreading disinformation. The vast majority of AI-related firms are producing enormous profits ... and not just profits, but operating margins in the 50% range.

Literally everything you posted was a lie.

 

[Watzupken]

If AI works the way capitalists think it will(it won't) then there won't be an economy to pay for the investment.

Unfortunately, there are people that don't seem to understand the repercussion. If AI takes over jobs, who is paying taxes, buying goods and services, etc? The idea itself is not sustainable.

I do think most layoffs are not really due to AI but because the underlying economy is really in a bad shape. AI is just the smoke screen to obscure the state of the economy.

 

[Liljonny11]

AI is not a bubble.
The people who think it is don't understand it.
AI is going to be the most transformative, disruptive, destructive technology since the introduction of the PC. We are witnessing a new digital, electrical infrastructure with surviellance built-in in its infancy.
I am thankful I will be retiring soon.
I feel bad for Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who are going to suffer a job market, housing market and economy that is akin to them sitting down to a game of monopoly 10 minutes before it ends. They'd be smart to stay away from any job that is computer-heavy and focus on jobs like electricians, plumbers, welding and other supportive infrastructure positions.

You're confusing actual AI which we are not two years away from with the generative kind that is being pushed for layoffs. CEOs like layoffs, they always have and will always follow suit with the top tech companies. Of course executives want that, they deal in ideal numbers not the actual facts of reliability. To make generative AI more intelligent, they have make it more like real AI which needs a ton of power. There's a reason why no one was using IBMs Watson to do a google search lol. Prices on the better models are skyrocketing in how many tokens they use which in turn is reducing the return on investment. We had someone at my job use up enough credits in equivalent subscriptions charged to amount to his normal salary during the period.