In the first four months of 2026, 49,135 jobs have been cut due to AI, accounting for 16% of all layoffs.

The tech industry is the hardest hit. From the beginning of the year to now, layoffs in the tech sector have totaled 85,411 people, a 33% increase year-over-year, reaching the highest level since 2023.
In April alone, AI-related layoffs reached 21,490, accounting for 26% of the total layoffs that month.
Cognizant laid off 12k to 15k employees, Cloudflare cut about 20% of its staff, Coinbase laid off 14%, and Snap laid off 1,000 people.
All of them cite AI as a core driving factor.
But after laying off so many people, are companies making money?
A survey by Gartner of 350 companies with annual revenue over $1 billion found that 80% of companies deploying AI have implemented layoffs, but there is no positive correlation between layoff rates and return on investment.
Companies that lay off many employees do not earn significantly less than those that lay off fewer.
Layoffs create budget space, not investment returns.
The companies that achieve the highest returns take a different approach: using AI to amplify employee output rather than replace employees.
Gartner calls this model "human-amplified business."
Even Sam Altman himself admits there is a phenomenon of "AI whitewashing": companies packaging layoffs that would have happened anyway as AI-driven structural adjustments.
After all, in this game, "we are embracing AI" sounds much better than "we are really making money with AI."