While there are points here that I agree with, I do not agree with the premise that they are firing people to fund AI. Funding of AI (keyword funding, not usage

While there are points here that I agree with, I do not agree with the premise that they are firing people to fund AI. Funding of AI (keyword funding, not usage) I would say is an adjacent relation, but not the reason people are being let go. I think it's a combination of factors including: - Overhiring in the past, most of these companies were/are still employing way above the pre-pandemic numbers when overhiring was the norm. Many of these companies legitimately probably have more people than they need still. - No matter what you think, AI is certainly already capable of improving productivity enough to make up for many of the jobs lost. Just look at how much AI can do today compared to even just a couple years ago. Practically every engineer who is worth their salt can put out way more than they previously could. Yes there is the question of quality and whether that's going to keep up, but you simply cannot argue at this point that AI is not able to increase productivity enough for the decreased headcount. Theres a reason junior hiring has fallen, they expect senior engineers to both output more using AI and to have the capability of effectively reeling it in and reviewing. - As much as I hate to say it because it gets people angry and political: offshoring. Every company that I've worked on or worked at in the last few years has increased headcount of offshore employees and contractors. - And lastly is simply expectations. Executives can see that other companies that have let go of people are able to still effectively run much slimmer.