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Sam Altman says some employers blame AI for layoffs they would have made anyway—a practice he calls “AI washing”—while acknowledging that AI is already displacing some workers and could have a more noticeable effect in coming years. The distinction matters: an employer’s explanation does not, by itself, show that AI directly replaced the people who lost their jobs.
What Sam Altman said about AI layoffs
In an interview with CNBC-TV18 at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February 2026, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said: “I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there’s some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do.” IT Pro reported the remarks on February 20, 2026. Read IT Pro’s account of Altman’s comments.
Altman did not say AI has no effect on jobs. In the same interview, he said, “There’s some real displacement by AI of different kinds of jobs,” and predicted, “I would expect that the real impact of AI doing jobs in the next few years will begin to be palpable.” Those are his assessment and forecast, not a measured estimate of how many layoffs AI has caused.
Are companies blaming AI for layoffs?
Some employers may cite AI when announcing job cuts, but that statement alone cannot establish that automation directly replaced those workers. Layoffs can also follow weak demand, earlier over-hiring, restructuring, or decisions to redirect spending toward AI. The available evidence does not provide a national count that separates those causes reliably.
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Oxford Economics’ findings, as summarized by IT Pro in January 2026, described evidence of current AI job replacement as patchy and said other layoff drivers were more commonly cited. IT Pro reported Oxford Economics’ estimate that 55,000 job cuts were attributed to AI during the first eleven months of 2025, or 4.5% of total cuts. The organization reportedly suspected that even this figure might overstate direct AI replacement. Treat it as an attributed estimate reported by IT Pro—not an official count or proof that AI performed the jobs of the people affected. IT Pro’s report on the Oxford Economics analysis.
What the New York Fed found about AI and jobs
A September 1, 2026 analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York offers a more specific, but regional, snapshot. It draws on August business surveys in New York and Northern New Jersey, not a survey of the entire US labor market. Among firms in that surveyed region, AI use was more common than reported AI-related layoffs; hiring adjustments and retraining were also part of the picture. Read the New York Fed analysis.
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| Measure | Reported result | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| AI use in 2026 | 61% of surveyed service firms and 51% of surveyed manufacturers in the New York Fed’s region reported using AI. | Use was reported by employers in the surveyed region; this is not a national adoption estimate. |
| Layoffs attributed to AI | Among AI-using service firms, 4% reported laying off workers in response to AI in the prior six months. No surveyed manufacturers reported such layoffs in 2026. | These are employer-reported layoffs attributed to AI, not independently verified cases of direct job replacement. |
| Hiring fewer workers | 15% of surveyed service firms said they hired fewer workers than they otherwise would have because of AI. | This describes jobs that may not have been added, not existing employees laid off. |
| Hiring more workers | 13% of surveyed service firms said they hired more workers to help use AI. | AI adoption can also coincide with additional staffing. |
| Retraining | Just over one-third of AI-using service firms and more than one-fifth of AI-using manufacturers reported retraining workers in response to AI. | Retraining means changing skills among existing workers; it is distinct from either layoffs or hiring changes. |
The categories measure different outcomes: reported job cuts, hiring that did not occur, additional hiring, and training for existing staff. The Fed’s regional employer survey cannot determine the cause of an individual layoff or establish what will happen nationally as adoption develops.
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A Fortune account published August 22, 2026 described research analyzing US public companies and employee reviews. It reported a relationship between company announcements of AI investment and AI-related job cuts, alongside possible costs for worker sentiment and job security. That kind of association is relevant to how AI investment and employment decisions may coincide, but it does not count how many people were technologically replaced. Read Fortune’s account.
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- “AI-related” is not the same as “caused by AI.” A company can connect a restructuring to AI without showing that a system took over the affected workers’ tasks.
- Layoffs and slower hiring are different. A firm that hires fewer people than planned has changed its hiring path, but has not necessarily dismissed existing employees.
- Regional findings are not a national forecast. The New York Fed data cover New York and Northern New Jersey firms surveyed in August 2026; they do not establish the long-term effect across the United States.
- No individual role is guaranteed safe. These findings describe broad employer responses, not the future of a particular occupation, company, or worker.
The most defensible conclusion is neither that AI is already responsible for every announced layoff nor that employers are merely using it as a cover. Altman’s remarks distinguish questionable attribution from real displacement; the regional survey finds AI-attributed layoffs uncommon in its sample while also documenting hiring changes and retraining. How much work AI will ultimately replace remains unsettled.
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