Silicon Valley CEOs are no longer talking about AI-related layoffs.

Source: Wall Street Journal, compiled by BitpushNews

As public perception of artificial intelligence turns negative, warnings about mass layoffs are decreasing

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman) Altman stated that the industry underestimated our ability to remain "human-centric" in everything we do. A year ago, many business leaders were conveying the message that artificial intelligence would completely destroy jobs. But in the past month or so, tech CEOs have begun to adopt a more optimistic tone. In late May of this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—who has long predicted that artificial intelligence would trigger dramatic changes in the labor market—stated at a conference, “We’re largely right about technology predictions, but completely wrong about the social and economic impacts.” Shortly after, in an interview with CNBC, he stated, “Our industry underestimates our ability to remain human-centric in everything.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in May 2025 that artificial intelligence could eliminate half of startup jobs. A year later, he emphasized a more proactive approach for businesses adopting AI: “They can do the same thing with fewer resources, which leads to layoffs and other consequences; or they can do more with the same resources. But that requires creativity.” In a June article, the executive wrote that his warnings about job losses were intended to give policymakers and the private sector the best opportunity to adapt—he wasn't trying to be a “doomsday prophet.” (He also wrote that the possibility of “persistent unemployment” remains.) Is this more optimistic outlook an attempt to win back customers and the public who are dissatisfied with AI’s promise to “disrupt the world”? Or does it simply reflect a better understanding of AI’s role in the workplace? Some comments about the job-creating potential of artificial intelligence come at a time when companies are laying off employees to raise more funds for AI spending. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told Complex that if companies focus on increasing employee productivity faster than automation, "theoretically, there should be more jobs in the future, not fewer." In May, the company began laying off 8,000 employees and streamlining its teams. In February, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy discussed the job-creating potential of AI in an interview with CNBC. A year earlier, he announced that the company would reduce its workforce over the next few years due to AI. Amazon stated that the subsequent layoffs of 16,000 employees were unrelated to the application of artificial intelligence, but rather aimed at continuously reducing organizational layers and revitalizing company culture. Overall, the narrative has shifted from a doomsday scenario of "downsizing" due to AI to a future where workers can keep their jobs and achieve increased productivity. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned about job displacement caused by artificial intelligence, but in a recent article, he stated that he did not intend to act as a "doomsday prophet." This shift in sentiment isn't limited to tech leaders: an EY-Parthenon survey found that the percentage of CEOs who believed AI investments would lead to massive layoffs fell from about 46% in January 2025 to 20% in May of this year. "They may have noticed that the labor market hasn't actually changed (i.e. collapsed) as quickly as they expected," said David Autor, an economics professor at MIT. "They may have realized that claiming your great new product will destroy the economy is just bad business strategy." A recent study by fintech company Ramp and workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs found that companies investing the most in AI saw job growth rates about 10% higher than similar companies that hadn't yet adopted AI. “The companies I know that use the most AI are also the companies that hire the most,” Altman said in an interview with CNBC. Some tech leaders say AI is even creating demand for certain jobs, and many more jobs that don’t yet exist will emerge in the future. Many prominent economists disagree on the long-term impact of AI on employment. Ford CEO Jim Farley said last year that AI would replace “literally half of America’s white-collar workers.” The company recently hired hundreds of engineers, attributing the move to concerns about the quality of automated work. (These job postings were previously reported by Bloomberg.) "Engineers with deep technical expertise leveraging the power of artificial intelligence are a powerful combination that is driving quality improvements at Ford," a Ford spokesperson said. Under CEO Jim Farley, Ford Motor Company recently hired hundreds of engineers to address concerns about job automation. Meanwhile, negative public sentiment towards artificial intelligence is building. According to a recent poll by researchers at Stanford University and UC Berkeley, about 30% of Democrats believe the U.S. should accelerate AI innovation as quickly as possible, compared to about 50% for Republicans and 77% for tech founders. “The tone of the conversation has changed,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of leadership and decision-making at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “There was a lot of hype early on.” He said that between building data centers and government regulatory efforts on AI, “there’s a political element in what they’re trying to do.” Furthermore, there’s the question of how AI will actually perform in businesses. Companies in the technology and other sectors are learning how long it takes to implement new AI tools and striving to better understand their effectiveness in handling tasks and workflows. According to a survey of business executives conducted by technology and management consulting firm Emergn, companies are finding it difficult to determine which AI investments are successful. Approximately 20% of U.S. leaders said they received deployment reports that were more optimistic than the facts presented, some reports "glorified" bad news, and employees remained silent about failures. According to Stephen Henriques, a senior fellow at the Yale Institute for CEO Leadership, it may sound impressive when CEOs talk about the capabilities and expected returns of artificial intelligence on earnings calls, “but how it actually permeates the entire economy is another matter.” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has previously predicted that artificial intelligence will create new jobs. In June, he even stated that AI could lead to labor shortages. When asked on CNBC in May about people's fears of AI replacing jobs, he said the reason people were afraid was because “all the smart people have been saying it.” Now, fewer people are saying that.