Yesterday, we noted that two of our writers argued recently at Fast Company that AI is not the cause of current tech job loss. Economist Gary Smith and technology consultant technology consultant Jeffrey Funk think that the problem is more that companies have spent vast sums on AI with little result, and that that is one factor driving layoffs.

Now comes Joe Wilkins, writing at Futurism, to say,

While it’s easy to blame AI for the tech industry layoffs, CG&C highlights some other factors contributing to the dismal labor news.

“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month,” the firm wrote. “Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes.” …

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of reason to doubt that AI is actually capable of replacing thousands of employees — a narrative tech executives have a material interest in maintaining. While some companies like Amazon were surely over-bloated following pandemic hiring sprees, AI is mostly failing when used to improve revenue streams, the reason companies execute these layoffs in the first place.

“Tech Workers Are in Deep, Deep Trouble,” November 8, 2025

Wilkins makes a good point. Whatever is really going on, claiming that AI made the workers obsolete is a success narrative for the company — good for keeping investors and valuators confident.

How about, as an alternative, “We spent a lot of money developing products most firms aren’t adopting so we can no longer meet the current payroll”? That would go down very differently indeed.

It will take time to see which claim stands up better over time.