OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has referred to as out a rising company pattern of blaming synthetic intelligence for layoffs which have little to do with the expertise itself. Altman says whereas AI is genuinely displacing some jobs, a portion of corporations are merely dressing up routine cost-cutting in AI’s clothes—a observe he referred to as “AI washing.” It is a distinction that issues, Altman mentioned, as a result of it is muddying the general public’s understanding of what the expertise can truly do at this time.“I do not know what the precise share is, however there’s some AI washing the place persons are blaming AI for layoffs that they’d in any other case do, after which there’s some actual displacement by AI of various sorts of jobs,” Sam Altman instructed instructed CNBC-TV18, on the sidelines of the India AI Impression Summit in New Delhi. The actual disruption, Altman added, continues to be on its means.
What ‘AI washing’ truly means—and why corporations do it
The time period borrows from “greenwashing”—the observe of creating one thing look extra environmentally accountable than it’s. On this case, corporations attribute workforce reductions to AI-driven efficiencies even when the true causes are way more mundane: pandemic-era overhiring, slowing shopper demand, or plain previous restructuring.It is a calculated narrative alternative. Blaming AI positions an organization as a forward-thinking tech disruptor slightly than a enterprise cleansing up its personal strategic mess. Traders have rewarded this framing up to now, which makes it a gorgeous story to inform—even when it is not totally true.The numbers inform an advanced story. January 2026 noticed 108,435 job cuts within the US, the worst month-to-month tally since 2009, in keeping with Challenger, Grey & Christmas. However AI was explicitly cited in solely round 7,600 of these instances. The most important drivers had been contract losses, market circumstances, and restructuring.
Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and the sample of strolling it again
Some high-profile examples have already unraveled below scrutiny. Amazon laid off 30,000 company employees throughout October 2025 and January 2026, with its HR chief linking the cuts to AI-driven transformation. However CEO Andy Jassy later walked that again, pointing as an alternative to over-hiring and too many administration layers—”pre-meetings for the pre-meetings,” as he put it.IBM’s reversal is probably essentially the most putting. Again in Might 2023, CEO Arvind Krishna instructed Bloomberg the corporate would pause hiring for roughly 7,800 back-office roles that AI might deal with inside 5 years. Three years later, IBM HR chief Nickle LaMoreaux introduced the corporate is tripling entry-level hiring throughout the US in 2026—”for all these jobs that we’re being instructed AI can do,” she mentioned at Constitution’s Main With AI Summit in New York. The catch: these aren’t the identical roles. IBM has overhauled job descriptions to replicate how AI has reshaped day-to-day work, with junior builders spending extra time with prospects and fewer time on routine code.Microsoft minimize over 15,000 employees in 2025, with the layoffs extensively framed round AI transformation. But CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged in a memo to workers that total headcount remained primarily flat—quietly undercutting the narrative that the cuts had been purely AI-driven. Duolingo’s CEO made an analogous pivot after asserting the corporate would go “AI first” and part out contractors, later clarifying to the New York Instances that the corporate had by no means laid off full-time workers and did not plan to.The irony writes itself. Firms spent months telling the world AI was reworking their workforce—solely to quietly admit it was actually only a unhealthy quarter, a bloated org chart, or a pandemic hiring hangover.
Actual job displacement is coming—simply not on the tempo CEOs recommend
Altman was clear that AI washing does not imply AI is not having an actual influence. “I anticipate we’ll see extra of the latter over time,” he mentioned, referring to real job displacement. “The actual influence of AI doing jobs within the subsequent few years will start to be palpable.”Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has gone additional, warning that AI might wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the subsequent one to 5 years. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman put a bolder timeline on it—18 months earlier than most duties accomplished “sitting at a pc” are totally automated.However economists urge warning. Analysis from the Yale Price range Lab discovered no vital AI-related labor market shifts by November 2025. “Regardless of which means you take a look at the information, at this actual second, it simply would not seem to be there’s main macroeconomic results right here,” mentioned Martha Gimbel, the lab’s govt director.IBM’s LaMoreaux provided a extra grounded take: reducing early-career hiring now dangers making a mid-level administration scarcity down the road, forcing corporations to poach skilled expertise at larger value. Dropbox is making an analogous guess, increasing its internship and new graduate programmes by 25%—its chief folks officer noting that youthful employees are merely higher at utilizing AI than their seniors.For now, Altman’s view lands someplace within the center: the disruption is actual, however it’s not right here but—and a few corporations are getting forward of themselves for the flawed causes.
