London: From tech giants to airlines, global corporations are increasingly attributing job cuts to artificial intelligence adoption. However, experts suggest that the technology may be serving as a convenient scapegoat for broader business decisions rather than being the true cause of mass layoffs.
In recent months, several major firms have announced workforce reductions while citing AI efficiency gains. Tech consultancy Accenture launched a restructuring plan requiring employees to reskill in AI or face quick exits. Lufthansa said it would eliminate 4,000 jobs by 2030 as it integrates AI to boost productivity. Salesforce laid off around 4,000 customer support roles, claiming its AI systems could now handle half the workload, while fintech company Klarna cut its workforce by 40 percent as it aggressively embraced automation. Language learning platform Duolingo also announced plans to rely more on AI and fewer contractors.
But many analysts believe the real story runs deeper. Fabian Stephany, assistant professor of AI and work at the Oxford Internet Institute, said that while AI is transforming industries, it is also being used to mask other structural or financial problems.
“I am really skeptical whether the layoffs that we see currently are due to true efficiency gains,” Stephany told CNBC. “It is rather a projection into AI. Companies can use AI to make good excuses.”
He added that some businesses, particularly those that expanded rapidly during the pandemic, are now adjusting their workforce to reflect post COVID market realities. “Instead of admitting overhiring, they can now say it is because of AI,” Stephany said.
The trend has sparked debate online. Jean Christophe Bouglé, co founder of Authentic.ly, argued in a viral LinkedIn post that AI adoption across large corporations is moving much slower than claimed, with some projects being rolled back due to cost or security concerns. “Announcements of big layoff plans because of AI look like a big excuse, especially as global economies slow down,” Bouglé wrote.
Career expert Jasmine Escalera warned that this approach is deepening workers’ anxiety. “Companies are not being honest about how they are implementing AI,” she said. “Now, by blaming AI for layoffs, they are feeding the frenzy and making employees more fearful.”
Salesforce responded to the criticism, explaining that its AI tool, Agentforce, has reduced customer support cases and allowed it to redeploy hundreds of employees into new roles in sales and professional services. Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski also clarified that AI was only part of a larger restructuring effort, citing natural attrition and organizational changes as major factors.
Meanwhile, research suggests that AI’s real world impact on jobs remains limited. A new study by the Budget Lab at Yale University found that since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the U.S. labor market has experienced minimal disruption from AI automation. The study compared recent labor trends to past technological revolutions like the introduction of computers and the internet and found no evidence of widespread job losses.
Similarly, a September report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed that while AI adoption among service and manufacturing firms has risen sharply, very few companies have actually laid off workers because of it. Only 1 percent of service firms said AI was responsible for layoffs in the past six months, down from 10 percent in 2024. In contrast, 35 percent of firms have used AI to retrain workers, and 11 percent have hired more employees as a result.
Stephany noted that while AI will inevitably change the nature of work, fears of mass technological unemployment are exaggerated. “We have seen these worries for centuries, yet each new technology has ultimately created more opportunities,” he said. “Just as the internet created jobs we could not imagine 20 years ago, AI will do the same.”
For now, it seems the AI layoff narrative may say more about corporate image management than about automation itself.