AI Is Getting People Fired — Even Though It’s Not Ready

AI is getting people fired — openly, loudly, and at scale. Amazon just cut 16,000 corporate jobs. Dow announced 4,500 more. And in both cases, executives are gesturing toward AI as the reason, or at least the backdrop.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: it’s not because AI is ready to replace these workers.

A new study from Harvard Business Review shows that companies are laying people off in anticipation of AI’s future impact — not because today’s systems are actually performing at a human level. Executives are betting early. They’re trimming headcount now and “white-knuckling it,” hoping AI fills the gap later.

That’s a brutal moment to live through as a worker. But it also tells us something important about where human value really sits.

The World Economic Forum’s latest skills report makes it clear: the future isn’t just about technical ability. It’s about deep domain expertise — knowing enough about your field to catch AI when it’s confidently wrong — and about what used to be derisively described as “soft skills” that are now about to be the hardest kind to find.

Leadership. Facilitation. Persuasion. Judgment. Being good to work with.

Those skills are learned socially, on the job — especially in early career roles that companies are now cutting. Which means firms may be quietly sabotaging their own future managers while chasing short-term efficiency.

In the short term, survival means shifting from “job applicant” to “problem solver.” Build things. Show your work. Sure, demonstrate that you can chain some prompts together and use a no-code environment. But the edge is human connection — both in terms of getting you in the door,and because algorithms can’t replace trust, collaboration, or judgment under uncertainty.

AI may be the excuse for these layoffs. But it won’t be the thing that ultimately makes organizations work.

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