In September 2025, CEO Marc Benioff reduced Salesforce's support workforce from 9,000 to approximately 5,000 employees, stating he 'needed less heads.' Salesforce reported that AI agents now handle half of all customer interactions and have reduced support costs by 17% since early 2025. This came just three weeks after Benioff publicly insisted that Salesforce's AI would not lead to mass layoffs, drawing criticism for the contradiction.
Between July 2024 and July 2025, hourly pay for Uber and Lyft drivers fell sharply in cities where Waymo operates: 6.9% in San Francisco and 5.3% in Austin. With Waymo providing 450,000 paid rides per week by December 2025 and targeting 1 million weekly by end of 2026, organized labor groups including the Teamsters, San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, and Rideshare Drivers United have mobilized opposition. San Francisco taxi drivers holding medallions purchased since 2010 have sought debt relief assistance. Multiple cities including San Diego, Minneapolis, and Boston have seen formal opposition from councils and labor coalitions.
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In May 2025, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted the company 'went too far' with AI-driven customer service, acknowledging that cost had been 'a too predominant evaluation factor' and that quality and trust had eroded. Klarna began rehiring human agents and adopted a 'dual-track approach' combining AI with human support, though the chatbot still handles two-thirds of inquiries.
− Jan 1, 2025 — Dec 31, 2025 Under Nadella's leadership, Microsoft laid off over 15,000 people in 2025 while recording record revenues and profits for its fiscal year ending June 2025, citing AI-driven restructuring. The layoffs occurred as the company invested heavily in AI infrastructure and partnerships.
Khosla repeatedly stated that AI will be able to do 80% of 80% of all jobs by 2030, affecting roles from doctors to farm workers. Rather than dismissing the disruption, he advocated for Universal Basic Income and proposed the U.S. government take a 10% stake in all public corporations to redistribute wealth. He published 'AI: Dystopia or Utopia?' arguing that policy choices around UBI and wealth redistribution will determine whether AI benefits humanity. He acknowledged the 10-25 year transition 'could be very messy.'
In April 2024, Microsoft announced a commitment to equip 2.5 million people across ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) with AI skills by 2025. The initiative includes the AI Skills Coalition with 60+ organizations, free Generative AI Professional Certificate through LinkedIn Learning, AI Skills Navigator portal, and the Generative AI Skills Grant Challenge for nonprofits. Microsoft also committed to training 1 million South Africans by 2026 and 800,000 Malaysians by 2025.
In February 2024, Klarna announced its OpenAI-powered AI assistant handled 2.3 million customer service chats in its first month, claiming it did the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski then paused all hiring for a year, and headcount dropped 22% to 3,500 employees. No public retraining or redeployment programs were announced for displaced workers.
In May 2023, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna stated the company would pause hiring for back-office functions, particularly HR, estimating that 30% of non-customer-facing roles (~7,800 jobs) could be replaced by AI and automation over five years. He cited an existing example: IBM had already reduced HR staff doing manual work from 700 to fewer than 50. Krishna later partially walked back the comments, saying IBM would not backfill roles lost through normal attrition rather than implementing a blanket freeze.