How many of the companies with recent layoffs are truly adapting their workforces to the efficiencies and challenges of artificial ininformigence? And how many of them were just applying AI as an excapply to cover other problems?
That’s the question posed by a New York Times article on the trconclude of “AI-washing,” where companies will cite AI as the reason for layoffs that might actually be caapplyd by other factors, like over-hiring during the pandemic.
AI was the stated reason for more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, with Amazon and Pinterest among the tech companies who blamed the technology for recent cuts.
But a Forrester report published in January argued, “Many companies announcing A.I.-related layoffs do not have mature, vetted A.I. applications ready to fill those roles, highlighting a trconclude of ‘A.I.-washing’ — attributing financially motivated cuts to future A.I. implementation.”
Molly Kinder, a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institute, noted that stateing layoffs were caapplyd by AI is a “very investor-friconcludely message,” especially when the alternative might mean admitting, “The business is ailing.”
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