#AI #IndustryThinking
While the job market is still recovering from the substantial layoffs caused by the federal interest rate following the pandemic’s impact, I believe we are now quietly witnessing another wave of tech layoffs or hiring freezes, driven by the growing adoption of AI.
For instance, the news article “Salesforce Will Hire No More Software Engineers in 2025, Says Marc Benioff” caught my attention and prompted me to consider this phenomenon.
What is happening today Meta Starts Job Cuts as It Hunts for New AI Talent - Bloomberg is clearly an indicator! And in the meanwhile, Anthropic released a report The Anthropic Economic Index \ Anthropic, in it there is several chart kinda tells the story here.
The Trend - AI’s digital takeover'
I have AI study the job types and adding a new job category with:
Digital-Oriented: Roles that thrive on computer and internet-based tasks, minimizing physical interactions.
Physical-Oriented: Positions that rely on hands-on human involvement with machinery, tools, and direct interaction with the physical world.
Mixed: Jobs that blend digital and physical elements.
By re-sorting existing data—specifically using the `% of Claude Conversation metric`—a compelling trend surfaces
A clear trend emerges: AI adoption is revolutionizing the digital space first, with its influence gradually expanding into physical realms (while Robotics AI still has room to mature). This shift brings a dramatic productivity boost to digital-oriented roles. However, there’s a flip side: organizations might increasingly view high-cost human labor as ripe for elimination in favor of AI-enhanced efficiency.
The Incentives - Economic Rethink
This brings the 2nd chart in Anthropic report
The second chart in Anthropic’s report underscores a pivotal change in how companies are assessing employee value. With AI amplifying output, firms are recalibrating wages and operational costs—often resorting to layoffs as a fast-track to enhanced profitability. This recalibration is visible in Meta’s recent actions, where workforce reductions are a strategic maneuver aimed at boosting stock performance while channeling resources toward AI talent acquisition.
Sure, META 0.00%↑ stock will go up tomorrow.
The Opportunities - New Partnership Paradigm
The third chart: Distribution of occupational skills exhibited by Claude in conversations.
Perhaps the most exciting insight comes from the third chart, which maps the range of occupational skills demonstrated by Claude during conversations. Even before AI reaches full AGI status, we see early signs of a new work partnership. Humans are increasingly “outsourcing” aspects of their workload to AI, accelerating the production cycle and reshaping their value chains. This is a wake-up call for professionals: reevaluate your current role, streamline your output cycle, and consider integrating AI as a strategic partner in your personal “smile curve”—the pathway that adds lasting value to your work. Reevaluating your current situation, configure your output cycle as a value added supply chain, modeling it into a personal smile curve. And ponder your strategy how you can navigate to the high value part, it is NOT easy!
Final Thoughts
In 1903, the Wright brothers launched the era of aviation. During the 1910s, horsepower still held its ground against the burgeoning automobile industry. Yet by the 1920s, the landscape had transformed completely: in 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh achieved the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight with just one engine—a feat that seemed unimaginable less than two decades earlier. Today, as we stand on the brink of another revolutionary era, the coming change promises to be even more dramatic and disruptive.
