Meta, Microsoft eye job cuts amid massive $700 Bn AI infrastructure spending push.
Tech layoffs near 900,000 since 2020 as firms continue post-pandemic rightsizing efforts.
AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude intensify worker anxiety across multiple professions globally.
Meta, Microsoft Eye Job Cuts as $700 Bn AI Push Reshapes Workforce
AI investments surge as Big Tech signals potential job cuts globally
Big Tech’s AI investments are reshaping jobs, raising concerns over future employment
Summary
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About more than 20,000 potential job cuts announced by Meta and Microsoft on April 23, indicate that this could be the beginning of massive layoffs in the technology industry, reported CNBC.
This move comes at a time when the tech companies are collectively spending billions of dollars every year to build out artificial intelligence (AI) structure to meet the rising demand for AI services while slashing human work force to cut costs.
According to CNBC, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are likely to spend around $700bn in 2026 on AI infrastructure. They’re also still trying to rightsize from the pandemic-fueled overhiring.
Layoffs.fyi website stated that 92,272 employees have been laid off this year, taking the total layoffs since 2020 to nearly 900,000.
Anthony Tuggle, an executive coach and leadership expert who previously worked in AI told CNBC that this represents a fundamental shift than a temporary market correction.
AI Reshaping Workforce Dynamics
According to a 2023 Reuters report, the tidal wave of AI has led to generation of deep anxiety among workers fearful that their jobs will be swept away. This is also having a rising impact on mental health.
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The launch in November 2022 of ChatGPT, the generative AI platform capable of handling complex tasks on command, was a tech landmark as AI started to transform the workplace.
Legal assistants, programmers, accountants and financial advisors are among those professions feeling threatened by generative AI that can quickly create human-like prose, computer code, articles or expert insight, reported Reuters in 2023.
While the transformative capabilities of chatbots have always been a source for inducing fear, workplace fears actually started to intensify in 2025 as Anthropic’s Claude tools began doing the work of entire business divisions and raised the specter that wide swaths of existing software solutions may be in jeopardy.
Future of Jobs
According to a ‘Future of Jobs Report 2020’ published by World Economic Forum, 85mn jobs will be displaced while 97mn new jobs will be created across 26 countries by 2025.
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However, the transition is expected to be uneven, with reskilling gaps and slower job creation in traditional sectors widening inequality across labour markets.