Is AI Really Taking Jobs, or Is It “AI Washing”?

Companies blamed AI for about 120,000 US job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, more than double the figure for all of 2025. AI is now the most common reason employers give. But that number counts the reason a company says, not a reason anyone measured.

The case for “AI washing”

Surveys of hiring managers and executives, reversals such as Commonwealth Bank and Klarna, and comments from Amazon’s CEO and from Sam Altman all show AI being used as a convenient explanation for cuts with other causes: over-hiring, weak demand or cost pressure.

The case for real

Other cases are real. Salesforce cut its support team from about 9,000 to about 5,000 people as AI agents took over half of its customer conversations. Stanford payroll research finds young workers in the most AI-exposed jobs are now 19% behind those in the least exposed jobs. Much of the loss is a “silent shrink”: roles that are not refilled and graduate jobs that are not posted.

What to take away

Use the five questions of the AI Washing Test on any “cut because of AI” headline. Washed or real, what decides your future is your employer’s decision about how to use AI. That is why we built the AVJ Index. Next episode: software engineers.