AI-Driven Layoffs

Discussions center on companies like IBM and Autodesk laying off thousands of employees, claiming AI boosts productivity enough to replace workers, with debate over whether this is genuine or just an excuse for cost-cutting by CEOs and managers.

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AI SQL IBM LLM reuters.com JavaScript youtube.com HR CEO ai managers replace workers ceos employees engineers firing headcount replaced

Sample Comments

andyfilms1 Jul 7, 2025 View on HN

Thousands are being laid off, supposedly because they're "being replaced with AI," implying the AI is as good or better as humans at these jobs. Managers and execs are workers, too--so if the AI really is so good, surely they should recuse themselves and go live a peaceful life with the wealth they've accrued.I don't know about you, but I can't imagine that ever happening. To me, that alone is a tip off that this tech, while amazing, can't live up to the hyp

jbverschoor Nov 20, 2023 View on HN

The board might assume they don't need those employees now they have AI

borissk Feb 6, 2024 View on HN

Maybe this is a way to get rid of a lot of employees without explicitly firing them. Looks very likely that the recent advances in AI will drastically increase the productivity of developers, operations, BAs, etc. so companies like IBM will need a lot less employees to do the same amount of work.

overfeed Nov 20, 2025 View on HN

No one's switching to AI cold turkey. Think of it as training your own, cheaper replacement. SWEs & their line managers develop & test AI workflows, while giving the bosses time to evaluate AI capabilities, then hopefully shrink the headcount as close to 0 as possible without shrinking profits. Right now, it's juniors who're getting squeezed.

dtgmzac Mar 1, 2025 View on HN

when you have AI manager, you will have AI employee incoming

RachelF Oct 1, 2025 View on HN

AI has provided a great excuse for your manager to fire you and replace you with someone much cheaper.

wolfi1 Dec 17, 2025 View on HN

so what is the take away message? fire only the senior devs cause they cost too much and can't use AI?

mkrishnan Jul 2, 2025 View on HN

Sounds like they replaced HR people with engineers and designers? AI helped them do it.

byyoung3 Jun 14, 2025 View on HN

I believe is AI. A programmer is now 3x productive. As a ceo, you realize you can probably let a few people go without consequences. Also, CEO’s look and see what Elon did at twitter, and think maybe they can do the same. I wouldn’t underestimate the influence Elon has on entrepreneurs and CEOs. “If you aren’t adding pieces back in, you aren’t removing enough”.

happymellon Jan 23, 2026 View on HN

It hasn't with AI.But it's exactly what the executives say, and why they are interested in AI.There is a post currently right next to this one on the front page about Autodesk showing a desire to use AI to fire workers.https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/autodesk-lay-...