Companies getting a productivity boost from AI aren't turning around and firing workers: EY survey

The detonation successful AI models, software, and agents has raised questions astir the interaction of the exertion connected the broader occupation marketplace arsenic companies find caller efficiencies from this caller technology.

But according to EY's latest US AI Pulse Survey, conscionable 17% of 500 concern executives astatine US companies that saw productivity gains via AI turned astir and chopped jobs.

"There's a communicative that we perceive rather often astir companies looking to instrumentality that payment that they're seeing and enactment it into the fiscal statements … reducing costs, oregon … cutting heads," EY planetary consulting AI person Dan Diasio told Yahoo Finance.

"But the information that we asked those 500 executives does not carnivore that out. That is happening little than 1 retired of 5 times, and much often they are reinvesting that," helium added.

A slowing US labour marketplace this twelvemonth has sparked fears astir an AI-led question of wide firings. And galore ample employers person announced sizable occupation cuts this year.

During his property league pursuing the Federal Reserve's determination to chopped involvement rates connected Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted the authorities of AI and AI-driven occupation cuts, saying it appears to person immoderate power connected the occupation cuts taking spot but is not yet a large constituent of these changes.

Still, helium said, it's hard to disregard the announcements that bash constituent to AI arsenic the crushed for occupation cuts.

"You can't miss the large announcements of layoffs and besides companies saying that they're not going to prosecute anybody for a agelong time, and they mention AI," Powell said. "That's each intelligibly happening."

In August, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said connected the Logan Bartlett Show that helium chopped 4,000 lawsuit enactment jobs, claiming helium needed less workers aft the institution began utilizing its ain artificial quality agents.

In September, Lufthansa said it would chopped 4,000 administrative jobs arsenic it leans much connected artificial intelligence. Duolingo said it would halt utilizing contractors for enactment that it said AI tin grip instead.

The EY survey indicates that 34% of respondents are hiring individuals with immoderate signifier of expertise successful AI, revealing that the adoption of AI has besides opened up a skills spread successful the labour force.

And not each AI modulation has paid disconnected for companies. Klarna, for instance, laid disconnected employees and stopped hiring caller ones, lone to person to rehire immoderate of the workers it had fto spell owed to lawsuit work complaints astir the AI.

Read more: How AI, unemployment, and involvement rates could signifier the banal marketplace and your investments adjacent year