David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the most influential and storied Wall Street firms, isn’t convinced an AI jobs apocalypse is on its way.
In an interview with CNN, Solomon questioned the impact of the AI-linked layoffs that have recently caused widespread anxiety, from average job seekers to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. While technological change may be moving faster than usual, we’ve seen this story before, the CEO said.
“There will be disruption. But I’m a big believer that our economy is very nimble, very flexible. And when you look at the technology that has flooded over hundreds of years into our society, we adapt,” Solomon said. “We find new businesses. We find new jobs. I don’t believe it will be different this time.”
The most recent of these AI-linked layoffs arguably includes the 14,000 employees cut by Amazon last week. During the company’s quarterly earnings call that week, CEO Andy Jassy said the job cuts were “not even really AI-driven, not right now at least.” Still, Jassy earlier this year warnedAmazon will not need as many employees in the future thanks to AI efficiency gains.
Other AI-linked layoffs include those at Meta, which cut 600 jobs in its AI division, as well as Salesforce, which cut thousands of customer-service jobs in favor of AI agents. Finally, Microsoft cut 9,000 jobs earlier this year; CEO Satya Nadella said the company will add jobs in the future, but “with a lot more leverage than the headcount we had pre-AI.”
