Gary N. Smith and Jeffrey Funk, writing for Fast Company:
For layoffs in the tech sector, a likely culprit is the financial stress that companies are experiencing because of their huge spending on AI infrastructure. Companies that are spending a lot with no significant increases in revenue can try to sustain profitability by cutting costs. Amazon increased its total CapEx from $54 billion in 2023 to $84 billion in 2024, and an estimated $118 billion in 2025. Meta is securing a $27 billion credit line to fund its data centers. Oracle plans to borrow $25 billion annually over the next few years to fulfill its AI contracts.
The fundamental point of this article feels directionally correct to me: AI spending (and AI drawing all of the venture capital investment) is more responsible for cutbacks than AI doing the work of those who lost their jobs. As anyone who reads this knows, I believe that AI can help developers be more productive; I don't believe that it can do developers' jobs.
AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is
Big spending on artificial intelligence puts pressure on jobs, as gloomy narratives about the future of work are ironically making new graduates less employable.