Many professionals are on edge as AI enters the workforce. Employers are cutting jobs, restructuring teams around the technology, and raising the bar for the skills workers need to stay competitive. Chuck Robbins, CEO of tech company Cisco, says many workers will face growing pains as they navigate this constant state of technological change.
“If you’re an employee who is uncomfortable with a lot of change and a constant dynamic environment, nothing’s going to feel good right now,” Robbins recently told Inc. “The pace of change is too fast, too dynamic, and they’re going to have to figure out their role in this world we’re living in.”
The leader of the $415 billion company says that industry leaders are the real pacemakers of the AI era—and employees “have no choice but to at least keep up.” But Robbins also added that workers aren’t the only ones trying to keep their heads above water. An early-morning Business Roundtable meeting showed that every CEO is worried about the speed of the technology and whether they can keep up, alongside cybersecurity concerns about protecting their businesses.
Some AI leaders like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have recently called on companies to slow down their pace of building models. Robbins said, “When the people building the most advanced models are raising questions about the pace of development, we should listen.”
Workers are feeling most exposed in the great AI transformation. Staffers are getting culled in the name of tech efficiency, as employers boast that their AI agents can now do the work of hundreds of humans. And while Robbins doesn’t see AI as a reason to shrink headcount, workers at many companies are still watching as employers restructure their businesses around AI—and wondering whether their jobs will be next.
Fortune reached out to Cisco for comment.
Workers are on edge as AI upends their job security
AI is hailed as the productivity holy grail, taking over mundane tasks, writing code, handling customer calls, and analyzing mountains of data. With those efficiency gains, it’s natural for employees to wonder where they’ll fit in a tech-optimized workplace.
The CEO, who oversees more than 80,000 staffers worldwide, maintains that it’s best to keep staffers in seats and boost productivity, rather than cut workers just to maintain the same level of success.
“The most innovative companies in the world shouldn’t view this as a cost-reduction efficiency play,” Robbins said in the Inc. interview.
“You should view this as an innovation enhancement play,” he continued. “You can do exactly what you’re doing today, perhaps with 20 percent fewer people—and I’m making that number up. Or you can do 20 percent more and deliver more innovation to your customers with the same number of people you have today.”
That being said, Cisco did cut around 4,000 jobs earlier this year as part of a restructuring towards AI and related growth areas. At the time, Robins reasoned that “The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest.” And it’s not the only company rethinking its workforce around AI.
Earlier this year, $46 billion fintech company Block reduced its workforce by around 40% after its CEO Jack Dorsey and other leaders questioned how many humans would need to stay if the company was built today with the latest AI tools. More than 4,000 of Block’s 10,000 employees would be affected. And this July, Microsoft laid off about 4,800 employees—with its Xbox division hit hardest. Amy Coleman, executive vice president and chief people officer at Microsoft, attributed the cut to the tech sector’s AI overhaul. While she clarified no dismissed roles will be replaced by AI, she admitted that “AI is changing how work gets done.”
Some experts have challenged the narrative around recent layoffs, arguing cost-cutting measures stem from pandemic overhiring—not an AI takeover. But others are chiming in and waving the red flag. Goldman Sachs economists predicted that the tech has erased around 16,000 net jobs per month over the past year; AI substitution wiped out roughly 25,000 roles every month during that period, while the tech’s enhancements have added back about 9,000. Entry-level Gen Z workers, exposed to AI substitution, have been hit hardest.
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