this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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[–] Dryad@lemmy.world 21 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

5% of those layoffs will actually be AI related. The other 95% will be profits related.

[–] III@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

100% of those layoffs will be for shareholder short term gain.

[–] Kintarian@lemmy.world 24 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Can we lay off the CEO first? He’s pretty useless.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Would you look at that. They kept pushing layoff all the time for fake reasons to increase immediate profit, and now they'll have another fake reason to do mass layoffs for maximum immediate profit.

What? AI? Who cares about that at this point. It's like a pretty ribbon on a big gift box to shareholders.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 hours ago

shareholder value

This type of reporting is frustrating and I really should get off the internet.

These surveys are done by consultanting companies that have large investment holdings. For example in this report one of the surveys is from Mercer, who has an investment wing that has a AUM (asset under management) ^1^ of $727 Bn according to their website ^2^. Would there potentially be any sort of chance someone like Mercer never put out a survey that goes against the bullish market driven by AI speculation? Obviously journalists won't think about these things anymore because that will effect their click rate.

  1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aum.asp
  2. https://www.mercer.com/solutions/investments/
[–] melfie@lemmy.zip 64 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Correction: 99% of CEOs are planning to use AI as an excuse to layoff employees to juice quarterly profits. They have zero accountability and golden parachutes, so no skin off of their asses.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 18 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

And the stock price bumps from layoffs mean they effectively get to just hand themselves huge raises.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Then parachute and let some other schmuck deal with the fallout

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Pretty much.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 20 points 12 hours ago

99% of CEOs ~~Expect~~ Looking forward to AI-Driven Layoffs in the Next Two Years

[–] aldhissla@piefed.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Layoffs of managers.

[–] MSids@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Who are they expecting to sell stuff to if everyone is unemployed and fighting over an ever decreasing piece of the pie?

[–] bridgeburner@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Companies will be just selling stuff to the wealthy. Afaik currently already the top 10% wealthy make up 50% of consumerism related revenue.

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

That's (really) a political issue, not a company issue. Each company does exactly what it's supposed to do: maximize profit for their shareholders. Even if they know it will end in a total disaster, they'll keep doing that. That's how the system works. Making sure the system works is the job of the policy makers.

Unfortunately, the policy maker is now in the companies payroll and so helps maximize the shareholders profit, there is no one left to look at the bigger picture and/or long term effects.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

everyone is unemployed and fighting over an ever decreasing piece of ~~the pie~~?

Roasted CEO

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

That’s okay. I will choose not to participate in your new economy beyond buying essentials like food.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 9 points 14 hours ago

Anyone know of any publicly traded guillotine producers? I'd like to invest early.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 47 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

Clarification - these are management driven layoffs. AI doesn't drive anything, managers replace people with it.

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[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 171 points 23 hours ago (14 children)

They expect layoffs. They're just going to blame AI for it.

[–] Lon3star@lemmy.world 42 points 22 hours ago

Exactly this... Even ones actually attributed to AI will likely be an overreach that won't be realized until after a person's life has been totally upended... Shit's gonna be bleak

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[–] CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world 51 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

I expect 99% of CEOs to get laid off. They are too lazy, expensive and don't want to work. They have a ridiculous sense of entitlement. Ripe for automation.

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[–] Darthcapi@lemmy.ml 62 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

I guess the office leases weren’t THAT important after all

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[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

https://isaiprofitable.com/ is a good site to see how profitable AI is at this moment....

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Including Nvidia in the revenue figure is like asking "Is playing in a casino profitable" and including the revenue of the house in the stats.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 11 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I dunno there are some people who have bankrupted multiple casinos.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

That must have absolutely ruined them!

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 hours ago

Surelly since then nobody ever again trusted their ability to run anything!

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

but even so, the total including the house is still very negative, here. It would be like.... I don't know, I can't think of anyone in their right mind who could bankrupt a casino 😜

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

I can think of someone very much not in their right mind who did...

[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I think it's only a matter of time.

Waymo already exists in some parts of the US and is being trialled in Atlanta and London. Miso Robotics already can automate manual work in kitchens and have their bots rolled out in fast food chains like White Castle. Claude is miles ahead of competitors in terms of output quality, and there are probably a lot of AI slop content creators making absolute bank from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Optimus 3 will be released soon and at a predicted price of $30,000 per robot, it could potentially lead to mass layoffs in warehouses. Because remember, robots don't get tired, don't need food, don't need water, don't need to piss, don't need to shit, won't complain about OSHA violations, and don't need a paycheck. All that matters is work quality and price

According to some accounts, China are apparently even further ahead than the US in terms of AI and robotics, but they're deliberately holding back their rollout of humanoid robots and self-driving vehicles because they know a wide rollout will lead to mass unemployment and civil unrest.

A big part of the reason AI spend is so expensive is because there's this huge arms race to throw gargantuan amounts of computing power in the hopes of achieving AGI that way. While I think AGI may be bullshit and unachievable, I think they'll eventually turn a profit once they stop focusing on throwing trillions at data centres.

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[–] Arrandee@lemmy.world 68 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You know, a year ago people in charge were all, like nooo we’re not going to fire people and pocket the payroll savings

When did we cross the line where everybody stopped lying? I mean, our vaunted business leaders dropping the bullshit is welcome, even if its bad news… but the interesting bit is in the collective, unconscious decision to just own up to this as the likeliest future.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 64 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The Trump admin has emboldened the entire upper echelons of society to drop pretense because enough of society is stupid enough to always buy it even if its painfully obvious that they are lying. They feel untouchable with their buddies in charge.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Exactly - the more easilly the "riff-raff" is to swindle or the less capable they are to push back, the more intensely and shamelessly the "upper" classes take advantage of the rest.

You don't just see it in the historical trends (such as ever more reduced levels of broad representativeness of elected politicians in for example the US or Britain), you also see it across nations: for example after the 2008 Crash, the wealthy in France (with its tradition of public rebellion) were actually saying they should be taxed MORE, whilst the wealthy in England (whose closest to "public" rebellion ever was the Barons rebelling against the King leading to the Magna Carta) were openly lobbying the Government to be taxed LESS (and got what they asked for, with Britain endind up in Austerity, with the anger caused by it being successfully redirected against Immigrants and The EU, hence Brexit, so the wealthy were totally right in not fearing the "riff-raff").

PS: that spirit of not provoking the streets of wealthy French did not survive the Macron years, especially once he won against the "Gilet Jaunes" (Yellow Vests).

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 49 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

"Expect". As though it's entirely out of their hands.

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[–] AllAroundNerd42@lemmy.today 44 points 22 hours ago

Replace C-suite executives with AI before the layoffs, then transition to a Co-Op. ✊🏼

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