Sam Altman Says Companies Embracing AI the Most Are Actually Hiring - Business Insider

Oh, good, another AI CEO has discovered the moral high ground. Sam Altman, whose company builds the very technology everyone blames for layoffs, told CNBC that companies embracing AI the most are actually hiring more. Altman called blaming AI for layoffs 'a convenient way' to explain them—which is rich coming from the man whose product roadmap is effectively a list of job descriptions being automated. This follows the grand tradition of navel-gazing we previously enjoyed from Jensen Huang and Demis Hassabis.

Altman may be correct that some companies use AI as a scapegoat for poor management, but the numbers tell a different story. According to recent data, tech layoffs in 2026 are on track to exceed last year's total, and AI-related roles are among the fastest-growing but also the most volatile. The convenient excuse he identifies is also a convenient truth: when your entire business model is selling tools that reduce headcount, you'd better assure everyone that the headcount is still needed somewhere.

The beautiful irony is that Altman's own company, OpenAI, exemplifies the paradox. It hires aggressively to build systems designed to reduce hiring elsewhere. So yes, the companies embracing AI are hiring—they're hiring AI researchers, data center builders, and prompt engineers. Meanwhile, everyone else is being told to 'reskill' into jobs that don't exist yet. Altman's words are a comfort blanket for an industry that wants to have its automation and eat it too. We'll file this under 'things CEOs say while collecting the severance checks.'