Virtually all CEOs surveyed in a recent study said they expect corporate AI initiatives to lead to layoffs in the next two years.
According to the consultant Mercer’s Global Talent Trends report, 99% of CEOs are prepared for AI-driven layoffs in the near term. The report says that most executives believe that redesigning work to incorporate automation will generate the greatest return on investment, but only 32% said they believed that the workforce can optimally combine human and machine capabilities.
The business world is enthusiastically embracing artificial intelligence as the next big profit maximizer. Over the past year, many companies, and increasingly those of silicon valleyhave claimed that artificial intelligence initiatives are working so well that they can justify mass layoff decisions. But while both executives and investors have been relatively open about their expectations for An AI-driven white-collar unemployment crisis In the near future, experts are conflicted over whether these commitments are resulting in significant productivity gains, while others dismiss AI’s potential to disrupt the workforce as simply a strategic tactic used by the AI industry to sell their products.
Those most affected by this are young workers. According a recent survey conducted by another consulting companyMost of the AI-driven downsizing that CEOs are preparing for is expected to focus on early career positions. The reasoning for this, as he says, is that AI is better at automating simpler tasks that an early-career worker at a company would be expected to perform as they receive the on-the-job training needed to mature into higher-level positions. But many executives, dazzled by the promise of an AI chatbot that can finish tasks in seconds and work 24/7 without needing a bathroom break, have said to hell with early-career workers and shape the future of the workforce.
This impact is not hypothetical and has has already landedaccording several studies published during the last year. The result has been uglier labor market for young people between 22 and 27 years old since the worst days of the pandemic, and hordes of young people in their overwhelming majority disappointed about AI and its future. A recent study found that Gen Z’s use of AI was plateauing, with members of the cohort increasingly reporting feeling anxious and angry about the technology.
This skepticism about AI has infected other age groups as well. A NBC News Poll March found that AI was so unpopular with voters that even Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency at the center of a crackdown that sparked mass protests across the country, was viewed relatively more positively.
Leaving aside the question of whether this trend of layoffs can actually be justified by the productivity gains of AI, workers are impacted by the way executives embrace technology at the expense of their workforce. According to the Mercer survey, only 44% of employees reported thriving at work in 2026, down from 66% in 2024, and anxiety over AI-powered job displacement is to blame. This existential angst and deep anxiety are so prevalent among workers that researchers propose coining the term “AI replacement dysfunction,” or AIRD, to describe it.
