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- Companies like IBM and Salesforce said cuts were a result of AI.
- In February, CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Block was eliminating approximately 40% of staff.
- Klarna's workforce has halved in the last four years, and its CEO says it will shrink more.
Worries about AI one day replacing human workers have intensified recently— and as it turns out, that future may be here.
We're only a few months into 2026 and already we've seen a number of major companies cut staff and cite AI efficiencies as a major rationale.
A March report from career transition firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found that so far this year, AI has been cited in 8% of job cut plans.
Amid this rash of layoffs, some have asked whether AI is replacing so many roles once held by humans or whether some degree of "AI washing" is at work. OpenAI's Sam Altman said some companies are blaming AI for layoffs that would've happened regardless.
An MIT study released last year said that 95% of corporate AI investments have generated "zero return" so far.
Even as some companies replace human workers with the technology, they may end up hiring more people because of it — or rehiring at least some of the roles they eliminated. A 2025 survey conducted by consulting firm Robert Half found that 29% of 2,000 hiring managers said they reopened positions that had been previously got rid of after implementing AI.
Here's a list of companies that have done AI-related layoffs: