More companies are pointing to AI as they lay off employees
When Pinterest and Dow announced layoffs last month, they attributed the job cuts in part to a shift to artificial intelligence — a sign that some employers are stepping up their investment in AI as they pare their payrolls.
Although economists have generally downplayed the impact to date of generative AI on the broader U.S. workforce, that may offer little comfort to the employees who suddenly find themselves out of work as companies tout their adoption of such tools.
In 2025, companies directly pointed to their use of AI in announcing 55,000 job cuts — more than 12 times the number of layoffs attributed to AI just two years earlier, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Of those job losses, 51,000 were in tech, with most of the cuts concentrated in tech-heavy states such as California and Washington.
After years of pouring money into AI in a bid to boost efficiency and productivity, companies are under pressure to demonstrate the gains, Challenger, chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, told CBS News.
"That means jobs being replaced with artificial intelligence," he said.
Amazon is one of the tech giants turning to AI. In 2025, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo that he expected the e-commerce giant to shrink its number of white-collar jobs as the company invests in AI "agents" over the next few years in search of efficiency gains.
"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said at the time.
Amazon said in January that it was cutting 16,000 jobs, but didn't explicitly mention its use of AI in a memo to employees.
By contrast, Pinterest framed the cuts as a way to redirect resources toward expanding its AI systems and capabilities.
Other companies haven't explicitly mentioned AI in their layoffs announcements, but have noted that they are ramping up their use of technology and automation.
A convenient excuse?
The flurry of layoff announcements comes as economists try to get a read on how AI will reshape America's workforce — a fast-moving target given the explosion in AI usage across the economy.
Ben May, director of global macro research at investment advisory firm Oxford Economics, said in a recent report that while some jobs are potentially exposed to AI, most employers don't appear to be replacing a significant number of workers with AI.
He also suggested something else — that companies could be using AI as a pretext for job cuts.
"We suspect some firms are trying to dress up layoffs as a good news story rather than a bad one — for example, by pointing to technological change instead of past overhiring," he said.
Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs, which collects and analyzes public labor market data, also suspects that some companies are pointing to their use of AI to rationalize layoffs.
"Companies want to get rid of departments that no longer serve them," she said. "And I think, for now, AI is a little bit of a front and an excuse."
She posits that the technology is having more of an impact on hiring than layoffs, with companies pulling back as they realize they can do more with less.
Challenger said he expects AI-related layoff notices to keep coming. "This technological innovation, I think, it's going to affect pretty much every industry," he said.
Companies that have announced AI-related cuts
Pinterest
The San Francisco-based company announced in January that it plans to cut 15% of its workforce, with a spokesperson telling CBS News that the social media company is "making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent."
Dow
Dow, an American chemical and plastics manufacturer, said last month that it is eliminating roughly 4,500 jobs as it steps up its use of AI and automation.
Indeed and Glassdoor
The career services firms, both owned by Recruit Holdings, announced last year that they were slashing a total of roughly 1,300 jobs. In an email to employees, Recruit Holdings CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba said that "AI is changing the world" and that the company must adapt accordingly.
Chegg
In October 2025, online education assistance platform Chegg said it was eliminating 45% of its workforce as it faces the "new realities of AI" and reduced traffic from Google.
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike CEO and co-founder George Kurtz said last year that the cybersecurity company was cutting about 500 positions as it leans into AI. "We're operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs," he wrote in a company memo.
HP
In November 2025, HP said in an earnings announcement that the computer and software maker expected to reduce its global headcount by 4,000 to 6,000 employees — part of a wider company initiative to increase productivity by using AI. The company also said the restructuring would net $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal year 2028.
Workday
Workday, which runs a cloud-based platform that helps companies manage HR and finance, said in February 2025 that it would eliminate roughly 1,750 jobs. CEO Carl Eschenbach cited AI in the restructuring announcement.
"Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday," he wrote. "This creates a massive opportunity for us, but we need to make some changes to better align our resources with our customers' evolving needs."
