by Faisal Hoque, Tom Davenport and Paul Scade
Precisely how AI will impact the workforce in the short to medium term is unclear. Many layoff announcements are better understood as AI-washing: ordinary restructuring initiatives packaged in AI language to reassure investors that leaders have a grip on the coming technological change. Goldman Sachs estimates that AI reduced monthly U.S. payroll growth by only around 16,000 jobs over the past year, adding roughly 0.1 percentage points to the unemployment rate—a drag that includes slowed hiring as well as outright job elimination. These numbers may well increase, but for now, we are much earlier in the process than the prevailing narrative suggests.
