Layoffs 'because of AI'? You're taking salespeople at their word
The incredulity with which people accept that layoffs are “because of AI” annoys me. Do you really take everything CEOs say at face value? They’re salespeople.
“It's progress from AI!” sounds better to investors than “We’re flailing, so we had to cut jobs.” Of course they’ll use that framing.
What frustrates me most is people here who normally discuss AI rationally—as a performance enhancer, not a sentient job-stealer—parrot that marketing spin without question. At scale, sure, efficiency can reduce headcount (more likely just allow business to expand without proportionately scaling operations). But almost half of customer support replaced by AI, as Salesforce just claimed? Please.
Even if you're complaining about the layoffs, when you couch it by regurgitating their marketing spin, you're inadvertently helping out with snake oil sales.
Jessie Grenfell
Jessie has spent 20+ years architecting and delivering software for organizations where complexity is the norm — financial services, insurance, nonprofits, and regulated industries where getting it wrong isn't an option. She specializes in the hard problems: unique operational workflows, cross-system integrations, and the kind of compliance requirements (HIPAA, CCPA, SOC 2) that most developers treat as someone else's job.
At Codality, she leads every principal engagement from discovery through delivery — because she's seen what happens when that thread gets cut.