More companies are pointing to AI as they lay off employees

MoneyWatch More companies are pointing to AI as they lay off employees .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Mary Cunningham Mary Cunningham Reporter, MoneyWatch Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. She previously worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program. Read Full Bio Mary Cunningham Updated on: May 5, 2026 / 2:04 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google 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.The Free Press: You Are No Longer the Smartest Type of Thing on EarthAmazon 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 p...