From January to April 2026, the tech industry cut a total of 78,557 jobs, with more than 76% of those layoffs happening in the United States. Nearly half of these cuts — 37,638 positions (about 47.9%) — were attributed to reduced demand for workers due to the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation.
According to Tom’s Hardware, however, the real impact of AI on employment is still unclear. Some experts believe it may take more than a year before we can fully understand how modern AI technologies are reshaping the job market. There is also ongoing debate about whether companies are actually seeing meaningful productivity gains from these tools.
Babak Hodjat, Chief AI Officer at Cognizant, suggests that AI is sometimes used as a convenient explanation for workforce reductions. He notes that when companies overhire or decide to restructure, they may shift the blame onto artificial intelligence rather than acknowledge internal decisions.
A similar perspective has been shared by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. He argues that some businesses are effectively “washing away” their decisions by attributing layoffs to AI, while the true long-term effects of the technology on employment may only become visible in the coming years.
Data from Layoffs.fyi also highlights a broader trend. During the pandemic, major tech companies — including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Apple — collectively hired nearly one million employees worldwide.
But starting in 2022, these same companies announced more than 100,000 job cuts — and that figure doesn’t even include the latest wave of layoffs in 2026.
Overall, while AI is often cited as a key driver of job losses, many analysts believe the reality is more complex — involving overhiring, strategic restructuring, and economic pressures as much as technological change.