CEOs Say AI Gives Them Only Two Options, and Both Are Bad News for Employees

"they can embrace AI and lay off scores of employees - or keep their employees, but use AI to make them work even harder."

"Spotify, for its part, is "keeping our head count roughly flat and just doing much more shipping, more value to consumers," Söderström said."

"Jack Dorsey's fintech company Block said it was laying off 4,000 employees, or 40 percent of its global workforce, citing efficiency gains from AI. Atlassian fired 1,600 while also extolling a pivot to AI. The crypto hub Coinbase said it would slash its headcount by 14 percent this week, with its CEO Brian Armstrong telling employees that AI would allow them to be more productive."

""Over the past year, I've watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks," Armstrong wrote to staff, per the WSJ. "This is a new way of working.""

AI adoption is driving a choice between reducing headcount through efficiency gains or keeping employees while using AI to increase workload and output. Business leaders fear falling behind technological change and often pursue the promise of producing more for less. Spotify plans to keep headcount roughly flat while shipping more and delivering more value to consumers. Block laid off 4,000 employees, citing AI efficiency. Atlassian reduced staff while pivoting to AI. Coinbase plans a 14% headcount reduction, with leadership claiming AI enables engineers to ship faster and work differently. AI has been cited in tens of thousands of layoffs, and continued model capabilities are accelerating the trend.

Read at Futurism