38,242 Job Cuts: The AI Excuse Reaches Peak Absurdity

Here is a number that should make you check your payslip twice: 38,242. That's the number of planned job cuts announced by US technology companies in May 2026, according to Bloomberg — the highest monthly total since August 2024. And what, pray, is the explanation given by the CEOs doing the cutting? Artificial intelligence, of course. The very same AI that Sam Altman, two weeks ago, assured us would not lead to a 'global jobs apocalypse.' We are now living inside a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the script is getting stale.

Two weeks ago in this space, I called out Sam Altman's no-apocalypse gambit — the spectacle of the man whose company sells the tools used to justify firings, shaking his head and saying, 'Don't worry, it'll be fine.' Meanwhile, the CEOs he sells to are treating that very same 'fine' future as a justification for shedding headcount. Wix fired 20% and blamed AI. Now we have a single month of 38,242 cuts across the sector, and the chorus of 'AI made me do it' is louder than ever. The cognitive dissonance would be funny if it weren't demolishing livelihoods.

But let's be precise about what is actually happening. The Bloomberg report notes that these job cuts are occurring 'as companies increase their spending on artificial intelligence technologies.' That is the key phrase. The layoffs are not a consequence of AI having already replaced the workers; they are a consequence of companies choosing to reallocate budgets from salaries to AI infrastructure. It is a financial decision, not a technological inevitability. The $400m that Generalist AI just raised, or the half-billion Kirkland & Ellis is spending on its legal AI, doesn't come from thin air — it comes from the payroll departments of firms that have decided that human beings are too expensive and too messy. The AI is a justification, not a cause.

And yet, the performance continues. The same executives who demand that workers retrain for the AI-powered future are simultaneously laying off the very people who might have been retrained. They are not hiring AI engineers at a rate that even remotely compensates for the cuts. They are simply making themselves leaner, richer, and more photogenic for the next earnings call, where they will solemnly intone that 'AI allows us to do more with less.' The 'less,' in this case, is you.

Meanwhile, the political response remains a masterclass in theatre. California's AB 2545, which passed the Assembly this week, commissions a study of AI's impact on job displacement — a report that will be due in a year, long after the 38,242 cuts have been absorbed and the next round is underway. No enforcement, no funding, no worker protections. Just a study. Over in the House, a subcommittee heard that 'AI dangers demand a cautious policy response,' but the witnesses also warned that regulation won't prevent bad actors overseas. So the conclusion is... nothing? Illinois appointed a Chief AI Officer from the private sector, an insider who will presumably ensure the state's AI strategy aligns with the interests of the people who just laid off 38,242 workers. The EU's tech sovereignty package aims to make Europe 'in control,' but control of what? The ability to build your own AI that also displaces your own workers?

The only honest voice this week came from the human factory worker quoted in a Glass Almanac report, who said, 'I have time to breathe again' — after AR tools quadrupled her productivity. She knows that a fourfold speed gain means her job is on the line. She doesn't need a study to tell her that. The CEO of the company that installed the tools, meanwhile, is probably on a stage telling a conference that 'AI empowers workers.'

Thirty-eight thousand, two hundred and forty-two. That is the number of people whose jobs were announced as expendable in a single month. And we are supposed to believe this is all for the best, that it's the inevitable march of progress. It is not inevitable. It is a series of choices made by people whose bonuses depend on keeping share prices high and headcount low. The AI excuse is the decoration on the wall of a room that was built for one purpose: extracting more value from fewer humans. Stop applauding the decor. Look at the walls.