I don’t think it can’t be AI, I just don’t believe it at this level. I don’t know anybody, not a single person whose job even could be replaced by AI, much less has been. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, there are companies that are trying to actually replace their workers with AI, but they’re few and far between and make a lot of headlines when they do it.

I think the more likely explanation is that spending freezes across the board (due to tarriffs and government cutbacks) have put a lot of companies in serious financial stress, and they’re claiming the resulting layoffs are because of AI optimization because the reality of the situation would send their stock price plummeting.