#ai

Microsoft is more bloated than other FAANGs, and is packed with legacy enterprise .NET devs - a skillset that is irrelevent in the AI era

Accenture stock rallies today...

Accenture reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue, which helped its stock rebound despite a steep decline over the past year driven by fears that AI could disrupt its consulting business. The company highlighted strong AI-driven demand and solid margins, and slightly raised its revenue outlook, but bookings growth remained weak and demand trends appear stable rather than improving. While some analysts see value in the stock’s low valuation and long-term exposure to AI and cloud growth, others remain cautious, noting that slowing revenue momentum and ongoing uncertainty around AI’s impact mean investor concerns are unlikely to fade quickly.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/accenture-earnings-stock-price-8b5d8c09

A massive reorg is being planned to reduce business units , and consolidate around AI document management systems. Think Content Server + Aviator.

HSBC Holdings Plc is reportedly considering significant job cuts. Up to 20,000 roles could be eliminated over several years. This reduction is part of an AI-led overhaul strategy. Non-client facing roles in global service are expected to be most affected. No final decision has been made yet regarding these plans.

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/hsbc-layoffs-soon-wall-street-giant-may-slash-20-000-roles-amid-ai-led-overhaul-says-report-11773883152084.html

Is there any truth to this? This is roughly 10% of the workforce. Heard it was AI related (same as other companies are saying - fire thousands of people to invest in AI).
There is now even a freeze for hiring contractors.
Makes me sick working here.

AI isn't working as well as Mike would like. I hear 2026/early 2027 layoffs are delayed by 6-12 months. Mike is not happy. 115m dollars is being deployed to consultants to "make it work".

• Constant* project churning. Requirements either written by AI without considering what's actually possible, or just blatantly copy the competition as they do it better. Just copy, copy, copy, without understanding what works and what doesn't, and why it works or not. Demanding constant revisions over and over on UX work, in a rush.

Utter incompetence. I've worked on projects for months that go so long only because management is entirely incapable of making good decisions. Iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate.

The place has become a complete mess, with outrageous demands as they assume everyone is now a superhuman with these AI shortcuts (they've done nothing but make things worse for everyone but devs.) And dev wants nothing to do with UX, as they just see it as a bottleneck as they "vibe code" unplanned, unconsidered garbage.

Anyone with original ideas will have them stolen as management desperately tries to justify their employment, despite outright incompetence.

What a complete waste. It was a great place to work while it lasted, but now it's just absurd demands with absurd timeframes with absurd people.

And good luck if your manager decides (to alleviate his own guilt for throwing out a LONG-time performer) that he has to be entirely unreasonable and make absurd demands of you suddenly . Su-ks when the manager was already entirely incompetent at design - now he's going to demand your work gets far worse as he forces terrible decisions that don't make any sense. Just making a paper trail of "insubordination" for not heeding "just make the logo bigger"-type of feedback an amateur wouldn't make.

What a joke. Stay far away. They are going to be desperate for good employees soon. I've seen many companies make the same terrible mistakes, and it just gets worse and worse.

Interesting post on X, it's clearly not from a VP in oracle, but the numbers and sentiment in it is spot on. https://x.com/gothburz/status/2032125473199714767

What does your crystal ball see? Mine

• 2027 RIF
• 2028 Richmond goes to a terminal
• 2029 It's time to talk about increasing shareholder value - Split Upstream from Downstream etal. Separate companies; oh wait that's being discussed in 2026. Hi BR and others.
• 2030 Why do we need people? AI can take over 50% of remaining jobs. Just needs a few oversight chums.

It just feels accountant driven to just maintain/survive - entrepreneurial spirit no longer exists. Growth is gone.

What do you all think?

Dell has almost played this to a perfect T and has given other tech companies a 100 percent effective road map to get rid of human capital. Does it really matter nope, what matters is Dell a 15 billion dollar company at best and it will look and act like a 15 billion dollar company soon

This AI thing is unsustainable, however you slice it. But hey, at least the internet's having fun with Avocado sc--wup.

Being told to implement IA to do your job, so we don't need you anymore, or we will let you go, makes no sense. Especially when no tools or assistance are provided.
It's like telling the bus driver to implement a self-driving system so we don't need you any more, or we let you go and we will implement one ourselves, while the bus and it's customers sit at the curb. We need someone to write the book, "how to ki-l a company with two letters".

Atlassian, an Australian tech company, is laying off 252 workers in California. This is part of a larger 1,600-worker reduction, representing 10% of its staff. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes stated the cuts fund investment in artificial intelligence and sales. Most affected California employees were remote workers. The company offered extensive severance packages to those impacted.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/ceo-apology-atlassian-layoffs-22082045.php

Oracle is preparing for another round of job cuts in the coming months. The company allocated an additional $500 million for restructuring costs. This brings its total restructuring funds to $2.1 billion for the current fiscal year. Oracle cites AI advancements and data center expansion as reasons for these changes. The company previously cut over 3,000 jobs across several countries last year.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/oracle-prepares-for-layoffs-sets-aside-2-1-billion-for-restructuring/ar-AA1YslLl?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds&apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1

It's coming Oracle.
With layoffs comes business operations distruptions.
Good read a survey.
https://careerminds.com/blog/cost-of-ai-layoffs?hl=en-GB

Isn’t it cool how the bank is training us in AI and encouraging us to try to automate some of our processes? No free lunches here. Every process you automate is one more step towards your own layoff. Even the things that aren’t successful highlight to the LLM what is important on the front line and what should get automated. Think you’re gonna get a nice bonus for alll that AI work you do? I have a Tuesday meeting set up for you. Don’t train your robot job destroyer .

Grade 30 reporting this:
3/19/26 is 1 of 4 layoffs coming. Was informed UBH, ECS, OI, PI, CCR, Optum Serve, MCO, E&I, and numerous customer service roles will be impacted. This is 1 of 4 more remaining layoffs occurring in 2026.

For those remaining, PIPs will be the new norm to avoid paying severence packages. Easiest way to reduce $. Workforce will be even more slim & existing work will continue to increase w fewer resources. AI is expected to reduce the time to do the work. OGS will pick up the new jobs (+ they get a $10-20k bonus for OGS referrals).

Buckle up - even tougher times are ahead.

RSCA was a paperwork fiasco. weeks of meetings where managers were bullied into nonsensical compliance tasks that don't manage an iota of risk.

Reward: Promotion to CAO!

Well, so much for 2026 efficiency gains. Maybe AI will hallucinate the answers.

Messari CEO Eric Turner has stepped down from his position. CTO Diran Li is now taking over as the new CEO. The company also implemented a reduction in its workforce. This move supports Messari's new focus on artificial intelligence. Turner will stay on to advise the company.

https://www.theblock.co/post/393840/messari-ceo-steps-down-layoffs

Dell Technologies has reduced its workforce for the third consecutive year, reflecting a broader shift in the tech industry toward AI and efficiency over headcount growth.

I don’t mind working for a company knowing my number could be drawn at any moment. The pressure doesn’t bother me, at least I have a job.

Dell isn’t “failing” it’s evolving.
But the tradeoff is clear - fewer employees, more automation, and a big bet on AI driving the future.

Natural progression for all companies.

Many companies are openly discussing AI's role in workforce reductions. MIT research indicates AI can already replace a significant portion of the US labor market. Several firms, including IBM and Wisetech, have directly cited AI for job cuts. IBM's CEO stated hundreds of human resources employees were replaced by AI. Wisetech announced 2,000 job cuts, attributing them to AI-led efficiency gains.

https://www.businessinsider.com/list-companies-replacing-human-employees-with-ai-layoffs-workforce-reductions

And so it begins: the pressure from above to start using AI tools. The reality: whatever can be replaced in the next years will be. We wont need to outsource anymore, AI will do it. So, if things are bad, it will get worse.

Working in tech is such a reliable way to plan to raise a family, with long-term employment stability.

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-ai-costs-mount-2026-03-14/

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as ‌Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

On the goodbye call.

Following block , OpenText will use this at its new narrative

Before it was “Covid” then it was “tariffs/trump” now it’ll be AI

This is the only option they know

Doubling down because they've already poured billions in, not because the payoff is certain. But there's a major cost and a lot of pain waiting for us at the end of this. The disruption is going to be massive on so many levels. Sure, efficiency sounds great on paper. But one of the really bad outcomes, the one not really talked about, is the loss of invaluable accumulated skills and competence. The people who actually know their stuff, who understand the systems and the history and the nuance? They'll be pushed out or made obsolete. And once that knowledge walks out the door, it's not coming back. AI can generate answers. It can't replace years of hard-earned instinct. But by the time leadership figures that out, the damage will already be done.

Of all the job functions AI is evaluating within Verizon, VBG leadership is uniquely ripe for replacement. While they talk about transformation initiatives, gap closure plans, and ad hoc Tiger Teams, none have produced real change. Just executive programs to meet their PA objectives.

The daily focus of status calls, roll up forecast reporting, escalations - those are human bottleneck inefficiencies AI will eliminate. Similarly, holding meetings to plan for meetings with higher level human leaders are also productivity black holes, easily identified via meta-analyses of calendar workflows. And the track record of decisions made after too much deliberation…the results achieved are uninspiring, to put it kindly.

While The leadership enjoyed MWC, the sales kick off in EMEA, The Superbowl, and the hospitality suite at CES, the real work of transformation languished back at the office.

AI discovery assessments in 2026 are ruthless. It won't be long now.

I am just wondering if this site just makes us believe that situation is worse than is it ? All my colleagues I worked with are still here and I haven’t truly seen a job displacement due to HIH or AI yet. Yes some VP or contractors were let go that I knew but everyone is still there.

The next round is upper management. As craft I have witnessed a lot of very incompetent, lazy, self serving behavior from management that has been directly responsible for all of the layoffs. Craft employees have marketable skills and will find work much quicker than the online degree MBA holding managers who are about to be replaced by AI. Karma is coming for you! It’s all your own doing!

Do you think at this stage, given the scale of redundancies already undertaken, that we are relatively safe from the 'sweeping layoffs' being announced elsewhere? No mo--nic responses please.

Here's the deal: anything you type into Copilot on a company device can be logged and stored under our organization's Microsoft 365 tenant. So if you're asking it about that weird rash, your divorce, or your side hustle… just know that's not exactly private.

And I'll be real with you. I'm on the BTS team, and we can see your prompts. All of them. No one's sitting here reading them for fun, but the access is there, and we just want you to be aware.

So do yourself a favor... Use Copilot at work for work things, and save the rest for home.
Easy rule of thumb: if you'd cringe seeing your prompt on a big screen during a team meeting, don't type it on your work laptop. 😅

This Award is given to the members of the management team or any projects with the intent of a) keeping the staff continuously underpaid because of their bloated salaries and b) any project that is directly related to attributing to further layoffs.

Here are the nominees:

Robin Vince (President & CEO): Earned ~ $29.4 million in 2024.
Jose Minaya (Global Head of BNY Investments and Wealth): ~ $19.2 million.
Dermot McDonogh (Senior EVP and CFO): ~ $11 million.
Kevin McCarthy (General Counsel): ~ $7.7 million.
Catherine Keating (Global Head of BNY Wealth): ~ $6.8 million - $7.3 million.
Senthil Kumar (Senior EVP and Chief Risk Officer): ~ $7.6
ELIZA - In 2025, BNY spent roughly $3.8 billion on technology, representing about 19% of its revenue. This includes funding for its AI hub and the development of Eliza.

The winner will be announced Sunday evening!

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-ai-costs-mount-2026-03-14/

I owe you all an apology. Back when those whispers started flying around about big cuts hitting end of Mar, I told people flat-out there weren't going to be layoffs. I was trying to calm nerves, keep morale from tanking, because I genuinely didn't want to believe it . I was wrong. And I'm sorry for giving anyone false hope or making the shock hurt worse when the news landed.

The Frontier stuff closed in Jan, and yeah, the overlap redundancies are real. Then you have got the whole Opex transformation push and AI rolling in faster than anyone expected, quietly eating away at roles we thought were safe. It's not rumors anymore. it's happening peeps.

To everyone who's been let go already, or who's still waiting for the axe, or watching teammates pack up boxes, I'm gutted for you. This su-ks. Really su-ks. Wishing you nothing but the best moving forward: quick landings, decent severance if you got it, and doors opening somewhere that values what you bring. Seriously, good luck.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal/judge-orders-unitedhealth-to-hand-over-broad-discovery-in-ai-coverage-denial-case/

I am honestly asking on what the current employees (lucky ones!) think of the BNY AI "baby" - is it really useful in your daily job?
Is the agent doing all boring taks and you just supervise the agent as was imagined originally ;)?

Leadership, not just here but across all companies, needs to realize that AI is not the answer, at least not in its current form. You can already see it breaking things all around us. Amazon is just one of the most recent examples. But they don't seem to care. They'll lay all of us off in the name of AI, only to watch everything start to crumble later.

This is our third post discussing Walmart layoffs. We are gratified that our first two posts have proven to be correct and consistent with our Business Intelligence and data gathering processes.

We still think the chances of involuntary separations in the period starting 3/9 through 4/8 is elevated from less than 10% up to 30%. Two factors drive this prediction, but the factor that impacts associates right away is the performance evaluation process. Associates are nervous and they know even if their work has been acceptable, Walmart can and will give out surprise poor performance evaluations as a way to move undesirable associates toward the door. Some will simply quit and that’s a cheap solution for Walmart. Management knows they can use the eval process to move associates out without a WARN notice, so eval time is a good period to start to thin the heard.

After 4/8, all the planning meetings, budget reviews, goals & objectives, reorg and prioritization events will be wrapping up and it will be time to execute on those decisions. Projects to put AI in place to benefit profitability and reduce personnel costs will start and staffing decisions will be firmed up, and unfortunately, started. May has typically been a favorite time for Walmart to do layoff activity and there’s no reason to believe this year will be any different, especially with a new CEO wanting to show a major uptick by the end of Q2.

Regarding the tech mess, Walmart continues to pay the price for bad decisions in the past, such as questionable H1B activity, reliance on contractors, bringing in tech managers and executives who have not delivered, and a host of associate morale and trust issues.

We suggest everyone review Doug’s comments on the future of AI. There’s several nuggets of truth in there and Walmart sees AI as a way to impact operational costs in a positive direction and improve productivity.

We know some form of the following question has been asked to all executives: “How fast can you implement AI solutions and how much headcount will you free up?”

Don’t agree with us? Tell us why.

This is not a post about AI. I barely do any feature work anymore. I feel like with everything happening in the US and the global situation, I just have zero motivation to work or produce work for these companies. Just waiting to see how long I can keep this going, wondering how many are on the same boat.

With everything going on it's hard to take anything seriously anymore. And knowing that my company is trying everything they can to replace me with either AI or someone offshore doesn't make me interested in helping them fulfill their profit goals.

At the same time, I don't want to lose my job in this economy either. But how do you stay motivated like this?