AI becomes the perfect non-human scapegoat: it’s inevitable, it doesn’t sue, it doesn’t organize, and it doesn’t tarnish the brand. CEOs can point to AI as an “external force of change,” instead of taking accountability for strategic missteps, bad acquisitions, or investor appeasement. Just as “globalization” and “automation” were buzzwords used to justify offshoring and restructuring in previous decades, “AI” has become today’s universal rationale. But many of the forces driving layoffs - overcapacity, labor arbitrage, cost control, macroeconomic hesitation - are neither new nor AI-specific.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shivaramrajgopal/2025/08/17/is-ai-the-scapegoat-employers-use-to-explain-technology-layoffs/