It’s an agonizing time for the labor market in the US, where unemployment is on the rise and wages are stagnant. Though there’s raging debate over what degree of blame AI holds for the sorry state of the job market, one thing’s for sure:workers are growing increasingly furious with the tech, which they perceive as undercutting what little job security they had.
Business leaders, as a result, are becoming anxious about the blowback — even as they rhapsodize about the coming AI revolution.
At the World Monetary Fund summit at Davos, for instance, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva launched into a talk on AI by calling it a “major factor for economic growth.”
“We see potential to up of 0.8 percent boost to growth over the next years, but it is hitting the labor market like a tsunami, and most countries and most businesses are not prepared for it,” she fretted.
Her anxious comments come after a year of dramatic layoffs and hiring slowdowns, in which major firms have often pointed at AI. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, for example, said in September that he’d cut 4,000 customer support jobs because he “needs less heads” thanks to automation. In October, Amazon initiated its largest round of layoffs ever, slashing 14,000 office jobs while citing AI as a major factor.
It should come as no surprise to those same business leaders that John Q. Public is growing increasingly angry over the narrative that AI is taking its jobs.
In its Global Talent Trends 2026 report flagged by CNBC, the analytics firm Mercer found that shop-floor concerns about AI-fueled job loss have surged from 28 percent in 2024 to 40 percent in 2026.
The firm’s research also found that 62 percent of employees feel their leaders underestimate the psychological and emotional impact of AI. And why shouldn’t they? Executives have spent the last year bragging about the supposed AI revolution, rhetoric they’ve used to game enough investment dollars to fundamentally alter the US economy.
Workers, in turn, shouldn’t be blamed for taking their lead — though in today’s economy, it seems they’re the only ones expected to pay the price.
More on labor: CEO of Palantir Says AI Means You’ll Have to Work With Your Hands Like a Peasant
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