Tech companies across the U.S. are laying off employees, including people who gave years — sometimes decades — helping build those companies.

What feels difficult to understand is this:

If AI is increasing efficiency while companies are still highly profitable, why should employees experience only the downside of that progress?

AI should not only reduce costs. It should also create room to invest more deeply in people, creativity, learning, and long-term human potential.

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How else are we supposed to increase wealth inequality?

likefunnysmartupliftinghelpful

Comment of the week!

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My father was a CEO for a large F100 company for 20 years. He never did layoffs. He believed everyone needed a good paying job for everything to work. The philosophy of responsible capitalism is now dead

likeuplifting

He was special from a different time! Best CEO for me was in the 80’s the company was sold twice both times with bonuses to employees, and only sold to companies that would support the team. Never find that today.

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Demand for a thing is 150

You currently can only produce 100

You increase output of thing 200% with AI

Market doesnt want 200 things

You cut staff 25% to meet market demand and maximize profit at 150

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Your mistake is thinking that corporations consider employees people. Employees are expenses that drag down profits. It has always kind of been like this but the MBA generation really doubled down on the philosophy.

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Those companies that adapt will be in far better shape than those that don't. I'm not sure whether holding the line for employees is always the right way forward but without people you don't have a company whatever level of investment you have in AI. And if you want people to trust you then getting rid of people in favour of AI which is inherently untrustworthy seems very short term.

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Won't *someone* please think of the shareholders?

likefunny

That is all they are thinking about
Maximizing short term share value. That is how they are incentivized and rewarded.

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CEOs have a duty to optimize value for the shareholders. Employing 40,000 employees when 30,000 can get the job done requires either a layoff or a way to increase sales such that you need 40,000 employees again. The problem is that in today’s tech companies, coding can be done at 10x the rate compared to 2 years ago. The business just doesn’t need that many developers.

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10x, from where did you get that figure?
Coding is one thing, but planning, UX, architecting, reviews, testing, reacrhicecting, etc. need to be taken into account too when thinking what a team can produce.

It comes down to two things 1. Companies always want to make more money 2. Many of those employees were either overpaid, didn’t do much, or both. I knew twitter employees before Elon took over that literally work 2 hours per week! So there is that!

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