Should AI be blamed for sporadic layoffs in tech?

During Alphabet Inc.’s September-ending earnings call on October 29th, CFO Anat Ashkenazi told investors that the company wants to tamp down costs, noting it would mostly be on how it operates and runs its business. Bank of America analysts had warned in June, post Ms. Ashkenazi’s appointment as the new CFO, that there was “potential for the company to ‘surprise’ with further self-help cost cutting actions after limited layoffs in 2024.” Google is a microcosm of the transformation happening in many other tech firms. Jassy told investors that GenAI “a really unusually large, maybe once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity,” reassuring shareholders they would feel good “ in the long term.” During the early days of AI, many thought that their jobs will be replaced. However, what it did do is change companies’ priorities, meaning that these are rethinking how they allocate their resources, more than often taking the risk of replacing several otherwise essential workers for a highly disputed, expensive AI specialist.” Labour force inflation and lack of clarity on how to monetise AI is also “forcing companies to figure out ways to become more efficient. Although the rate of tech layoffs have somewhat slowed, they haven’t fully stopped as bloated tech companies are shedding employees wherever they see fit.