The size of disruption forward is critical. A Forrester forecast printed in January predicts AI and automation will remove 6.1% of US jobs by 2030, equal to 10.4 million positions. To place that in context, the US misplaced 8.7 million jobs throughout the Nice Recession. Not like recession-driven losses, Forrester notes, AI-driven displacement is structural and everlasting. Notably, genAI now accounts for 50% of projected US job losses to automation, up from 29% in Forrester’s earlier forecast, as agentic AI options compound the impact.
However Forrester provides a pointed caveat. 9 out of ten occasions, the agency stated, when a CEO broadcasts workforce reductions citing AI, the corporate doesn’t but have a mature, vetted AI software able to fill these roles.
Restructuring from energy, not misery
The context of Block’s cuts is what makes them vital, stated Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Analysis. “This isn’t about trimming fats. It’s about redefining muscle,” he stated. “When a financially wholesome firm decides to take away practically half its workforce and overtly attributes that to AI functionality, it isn’t reacting. It’s repositioning.”
