#automation

Goldman Sachs is deploying generative AI to automate back-office tasks. President John Waldron stated this initiative will not cause mass layoffs. He expects the company's overall headcount to remain stable. Goldman Sachs Research estimates AI could expose 300 million jobs globally. Analysts remain skeptical, noting potential impacts on entry-level roles.

Manhattan, New York

https://hoodline.com/2026/05/goldman-boss-pushes-ai-factory-floor-swears-manhattan-jobs-won-t-vanish/

Constantly being scolded for not automating the fixes we have perform when existing automation/redundancy didn't already fix it. It's funny to see management get irritated that we're not excited about getting rid of the only work we do that keeps us employed, even though it exists because the SREs can't automate it enough to get rid of people.

GitLab announced a company-wide restructuring effort. The software company plans to reduce its workforce by June 1. This restructuring aims to meet the demands of the "agentic era." Changes include flattening management layers and reorganizing R&D teams. The CEO stated AI agents will automate internal processes, affecting roles.

https://www.businessinsider.com/gitlab-layoffs-memo-2026-5

New Jersey Expansion public information: WARN notices in New Jersey affect 141 employees, with separations scheduled between May 21 and June 14, 2026, as part of an AI automation and restructuring strategy.

Freshworks will cut 11% of its global workforce, approximately 500 jobs. This decision is partly due to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. CEO Dennis Woodside stated AI now writes over half of the company's code. Automation has reduced routine tasks across various departments. The company expects about $8 million in one-time restructuring charges.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/freshworks-layoffs-company-to-cut-500-jobs-ceo-dennis-woodside-explains-why/ar-AA22u4Z5?uxmode=ruby&apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1

Cloudflare on Thursday joined a growing list of tech companies — including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon — that have reported increased revenue alongside massive layoffs, attributing both trends to their use of AI.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/08/cloudflare-says-ai-made-1100-jobs-obsolete-even-as-revenue-hit-a-record-high/

You can run, you can hide, but you cannot escape ... AI will first eat Software Engineer or QA Engineer roles.

Next year RIF target will be Software Engineers especially order taking coders without business domain expertise. Grade 3,4,5 would be let go after Git-hub Copilot Adoption.

Said clearly on the earnings call , 150 million left for open reduction this calendar year

1 billion left in the overall plan , to be achieved with AI agents

Summary : more layoffs before end of June and anyone doing manual work to be replaced with automation in the next 12-24 months

I had to laugh while watching the latest IBM CEO Office hours (May edition). At minute 9:30, the topic is "Internal support efficiency"... Question about the internal support automation... think askHR, askIT, askSales, etc... Arvind said the services su-k... he tried to ask askHR what his vacation policy and the answer from the system was: "I could not retrieve that answer"!! Lol!

This is a great example on how IBM uses AI internally... useless.

""

Has anyone seen or used or have customers on the new ITAS platform? Will it replace people? Will it be used internally?

AI and globalization and robotics ARE having and continue to be our biggest threat collectively. So this is a blip on what’s coming down the Pike.

Freshworks is reducing its global workforce by approximately 500 employees. This represents about 11 percent of its total staff. The company attributes these layoffs to an AI-focused restructuring strategy. CEO Dennis Woodside stated that over half of Freshworks’ code is now written by AI. This automation has reduced repetitive work across various functions.

https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-marketing/freshworks-layoffs-over-half-of-our-code-is-written-by-ai-says-ceo-as-firm-cuts-500-jobs-97275.htm

Erased due to AI. Although I call bullsh-t. It's not AI. They just want to get rid of as many of us as they can and they're using the latest available excuse. AI creates more work than it saves. I know, I've been dealing with its mistakes for a while now. If AI is really the reason, then this place will go under sooner than anybody thinks.

The Q1 2026 results strengthen the case that leadership will keep pushing productivity, automation, AI, severance, consolidation and expense control. The company is not in existential danger based on results but the numbers are weak enough that employees should assume continued restructuring risk. I wouldn't interpret this as a reason to panic yet.

AI and automation are leading to job reductions in El Paso. HGS Solutions recently laid off 92 workers at its El Paso facility. These job cuts mainly impact customer service and back office positions.

El Paso

https://hoodline.com/2026/05/ai-layoffs-gut-el-paso-paychecks-as-oscars-draw-line-on-robot-scripts/

Many of the conversations here focus on RTO, offshoring and site closures. Personally, I think those issues are small compared with what the firm is contemplating with AI adoption — but there’s hardly any discussion about it in this forum.

What have you noticed in your own team? Are you seeing “digital employees” doing meaningful work? Have vacancies been closed with AI cited as a reason? Have contractors or staff been let go with AI mentioned as a factor?

I’ve heard this is already happening in the engineering organisation, with the “fisherman lady” setting rather ambitious targets

https://share.google/LYK6ISUIlNC03i0a8

Cognizant Technology Solutions plans to cut approximately 4,000 jobs. This represents about one percent of its global workforce. The company is shifting towards automation and artificial intelligence. It also launched Project Leap to invest in AI and digital capabilities. This marks the second round of layoffs under CEO S Ravi Kumar.

https://www.cnbctv18.com/education/cognizant-plans-4000-job-cuts-amid-ai-push-launches-project-leap-ws-l-19896374.htm

#AI-mad Verizon to continue with cuts after CEO's jobs warning
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman has now completed the 13,000 layoffs he promised last November, but more could lie ahead. [ Lightreading 📰].

Iain Morris,International Editor,Light Reading — April 30, 2026

Company bosses occasionally praise their employees in public and note the importance of talent. That doesn't quite ring true when they are cutting thousands of jobs, as many are, which might partly explain why lauding AI is now much more fashionable. Attributing job cuts to the solid efforts of the new AI recruit, which bosses have anthropomorphized by saying it is an "agent" or does "reasoning," is even trendier.

It's quite a turnaround from a few years ago, when linking #automation, let alone AI, to job losses was as taboo as nudity in the workplace. No, no, managers frowned, new tech will merely liberate workers from drudgery and provide time for more satisfying pursuits. This was obviously before generative #AI (GenAI) threatened to liberate content creators from creating content so they could spend more time cleaning laptop screens or making tea – until GenAI turned out to be a duff substitute prone to mendacity.

Regardless, investors, if not employees, like the sound of a super-lean and highly profitable company run by AI rather than people. Fearful of missing out on a new tech bonanza, authorities have stopped worrying about the risks and jumped. Suddenly, the hallucinating software developed by a strange cult of effective altruists is being foisted on the world's population by governments and companies of all types. No longer taboo, the linkage between #AI and #joblessness has been normalized in that process.

Into this maelstrom stepped Dan Schulman on October 6 last year, when he was appointed CEO of Verizon, one of the biggest telecom operators in the US (and, therefore, the world). It has been a major US employer, with more than 180,000 members of staff back in 2012. Yet by the time Schulman joined, just 100,000 were left after multiple rounds of restructuring and #layoffs.

Schulman's Verizon shrank even more rapidly during his first three months in charge and already seems to feature more agents than The Matrix. It's "where we have agent-building capabilities," was how he described part of Verizon's AI tech stack to equity analysts on the company's earnings call this week. Another layer "is where we deploy agents," he continued. The cost cutting looks set to go on.

'Never send a human to do a machine's job'

In the last decade, most of the job losses at #Verizon have had very little to do with AI and almost nothing to do with its generative version, which did not even exist until around three-and-a-half years ago, when the company was already down to fewer than 120,000 employees. Even so, another 30,000 had disappeared by the end of last year, including about 10,000 since Schulman took over. In November, he had warned staff of plans to cut 13,000 jobs. All those now seem to have been cut. "We're running leaner with the 13,000 reduction behind us," said Tony Skiadas, Verizon's CFO, on the earnings call.

https://www.lightreading.com/ai-machine-learning/ai-mad-verizon-to-continue-with-cuts-after-ceo-s-jobs-warning

Recently heard from automation lead at CNRL that they are going to buy Kearl.

Does anyone have some information?

We just heard that AI was used to generate an embedded software application that was previously written by a team of 10 software engineers. It took the team 8 months to create the embedded software.

AI completed the task in 22.6 hours. There was a 4.3% error rate that required manual correction. AI is getting better though...

Layoffs are coming especially for anyone that writes software by hand.

Former Meta executive Clara Shih launched a nonprofit organization to help Gen Z navigate AI-driven job disruption, offering tools to match skills with careers as automation reshapes entry-level roles and shifts workforce expectations toward AI adaptability.

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/news/this-former-meta-exec-builds-a-nonprofit-platform-to-help-gen-z-find-jobs-amid-layoffs

Every week I use Gemini to create my weekly report for my boss. They use Gemini to read it. They then use Gemini to extract the highlights of my Gemini generated report along with the highlights of my peers to send another Gemini generated report to their VP. Is anybody actually reading or understanding anything anymore?

Meta just offered a glimpse at what it thinks the future of work looks like: training and supervising artificial-intelligence systems to do what used to be your job. And that’s if you still have a job at all.

The social-media company has been unusually aggressive, even by the standards of Silicon Valley, at pushing to incorporate AI into its employees’ workflows and using it to streamline and accelerate its operations. https://on.wsj.com/4sY3ovU

Already this year, it has started grading employees in performance reviews on their AI use; created ultra flat teams with almost no managers; and begun to develop a so-called CEO agent to assist Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg in performing his job.

On Thursday, the company said it planned to lay off 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 people, on May 20.

Earlier in the week, an internal memo notified employees of a new software tool that would record their keystrokes, mouse movements and click locations to teach “the next generation of our AI models to use computers.”

It is all part of the tech company’s plans to become “AI native” and transform the way its teams and employees do their jobs as it seeks to spend up to $135 billion on AI infrastructure this year and build what it calls personal superintelligence for its 3.5 billion daily users.

The moves have left some staff filled with anxiety and wondering: Am I helping automate my own job away?

https://on.wsj.com/4sY3ovU

I accomplished something today in about 20 minutes with my manager using Copilot a project that would have taken the India team 11 hours to accomplish. 1 hour to explain. 6 hours to read the document and do the work. Another hour to re-explain what I wanted because they did it wrong, and then another 3 hours to finish the project.

The co-pilot answer was structured, tabular, concise, without excessive use of passive voice that makes my brain hurt.

Definitely the future

Is there any good reason to have Cresta installed? We were forced to download it this week. Most of the time it’s in my way and the conversation summaries are not accurate. I don’t see much use for that application other than it probably training AI to take our jobs. Another failed use of Schwab trying to force AI into the business.

Can AI fix walgreens systems without a human?

:) No!

To layoff TAC engineer, Sherlock is created few years ago to take case. Until now more and more cases should be touched by Sherlock first. He even can't handle an RMA case and can't understand customer's problem description.

What a stupid guy, he brings too much troubles for TAC engineer and now there is an "overwatcher" process to help train Sherlock.

TAC help Sherlock to layoff TAC??? What a stupid company!!! Customers are willing to buy stupid Cisco products and services? ridiculous

Many U.S. companies, including several in California, announced layoffs this week. These job cuts span various industries like technology, finance, and healthcare. Companies such as Lucid Group, C3.ai, and Wells Fargo are among those affected. The reductions reflect restructuring efforts and cost-cutting measures. Automation and artificial intelligence also contribute to these workforce changes.

https://patch.com/california/across-ca/thousands-layoffs-announced-ca-companies

Is it actually causing layoffs? Is it really being used productively anywhere? I'm not talking about CoPilot, but rather focused projects with a specific purpose. Would be interested in hearing from people involved with or affected by such endeavors, rather than the usual PR fluff that gets spewed by leadership.

BNY Mellon’s shift toward AI, digital workers, and platform‑based operations is reshaping job families across the bank. Roles built on repetitive processing, documentation, reconciliations, onboarding, KYC refresh, and basic QA are being automated or moved to lower‑cost hubs. As the company expands its agentic‑AI model—where one employee supervises dozens of autonomous agents—traditional career paths in operations and service centers will continue to narrow.

Employees can protect their careers by moving toward the work AI cannot easily replace. The most resilient paths include:

- AI governance, model oversight, and risk controls

- Exception handling and complex client‑service roles

- Data quality, lineage, and supervisory functions

- Platform product management and workflow design

BNY Mellon is also training thousands of employees to build and manage AI agents. Learning these tools—prompting, workflow orchestration, and agent supervision—positions employees for the emerging “human‑in‑the‑loop” roles that will grow as automation expands.

The most vulnerable job families are those tied to manual processing, standardized workflows, and mid‑skill operational tasks. Over time, many of these roles will consolidate or disappear entirely.

The strongest strategy is to pivot early: build AI‑adjacent skills, move toward analytical or client‑facing work, and position yourself where judgment, escalation, and oversight—not repetition—define the role. Learning to become a carpenter or electrician are also attractive options.

Cardamom restaurant laid off its front-of-house staff. Workers received an email about the layoffs a week ago. The restaurant will now use QR codes. This change eliminates the need for certain staff positions. Former employees are now picketing in response.

https://www.kare11.com/video/news/local/former-cardamom-workers-picket-after-sudden-layoffs/89-fb59e034-34c6-47d7-a1b1-1b787438ebc3

BNY employees increasingly describe changes that align with the AI‑driven cost‑reduction strategies McKinsey promotes to large financial institutions.

The most visible shift we see is the steady automation of repetitive, rules‑based work that RV brags about in the media — onboarding, KYC refresh, reconciliations, service requests, and exception routing. Employees report that tasks once handled by full teams are now processed through AI‑enabled workflows, reducing the need for manual roles and shrinking job families.

Decision‑support AI is also reshaping middle‑skill positions. Workers note fewer analyst roles, broader spans of control, and more “AI‑assisted” oversight, which mirrors McKinsey’s recommendation to streamline mid‑tier functions by embedding intelligence into platforms rather than people.

The Platform Operating Model (P-O-M) accelerates this transition. Employees describe work being standardized, centralized, and moved offshore once AI reduces the skill threshold required. This matches McKinsey’s model: automate first, relocate second.

The impact on employees is becoming clearer. Career paths in legacy operations, service, and processing roles are narrowing as automation absorbs institutional knowledge and reduces the value of tenure. Job security is declining in functions where work can be digitized, offshored, or both. New roles are emerging in AI governance, data quality, and exception management — but not in volumes that offset reductions.

Employee reports consistently reflect the same conclusion: AI is not just a tool at BNY; it is a restructuring engine.

Morrisons plans to cut approximately 200 roles at its Bradford head office. These reductions will affect positions across marketing, commercial, and technical teams. The layoffs are part of a multi-year transformation strategy. This initiative focuses on accelerating AI adoption and automation within the business. Morrisons aims to strengthen central functions and improve efficiency in challenging market conditions.

Bradford, UK

https://www.thestreet.com/employment/127-year-old-retailer-confirms-more-cuts-in-2026-morrisons

Ninety-five jobs were eliminated by Snap. These cuts occurred in Washington state. The company implemented broader layoffs. Snap seeks to increase automation. This strategy emphasizes AI-driven operational efficiency.

https://letsdatascience.com/news/snap-cuts-95-washington-state-jobs-for-ai-efficiency-72fad0d2

"Hey everyone! We're gonna outsource to India and automate using AI! How does that sound! Rah rah!"
(su-kers cheer)

If you can imagine Gen AI doing your job, you need to be looking for a new job because you can bet your bottom dollar it's only a matter of time (and not that much time) before you are replaced.

Think before you use AI at hcsc. Dont help train an AI to take your job away. You dont need it! They are coming for any job Thats repetitive or low level at first. You think this huge move to remotely work is in your best interest? Think again. Use your head, ot AI.

How hard they are trying to find people to get rid of. Multiple ways of tracking the same work, how often you're moving the mouse, clicking, and typing. Whether your work can be replaced by a push-button workflow.

Capitalism is showing just how ruthless it truly is.

Once certian projects are finished they will lay off the rest of that department and let L T I take over. Congrulations on working yourself out of a job. HR will mostly be replaced by a computer. Get used to talking to a machine. Middle management will be gutted. They won't be needed since LTI has their own management in place.

Projects will be downsized further and support groups dismantled and/or gone.

Operations you aren't safe. They are looking at you.

Anyone who is of retirement age will be next. If you have several complaints in your file you will also be gone. There won't be anyone left at cpchem except for a few in corporate. You are a number, remeber that. They don't care. They never did.