The promise of AI has led to regrettable bets being made which compromise quality in favor of speed and efficiencygettyBeen laid off this year because of AI? Don’t worry; chances are, you might just get your job back.The very employers that were quick to lay off workers because of the AI hype are quickly realizing that this rash decision is costly. AI may not be so efficient after all. More than three in 10 U.S. hiring managers who eliminated positions after their organization implemented AI, later had to add those very roles or very similar ones back, Robert Half research reveals. And earlier this year, Gartner predicted that by 2027, 50% of companies that reduced their headcount because of AI will need to rehire staff to perform similar functions, although under, although likely under different job titles. Referring to the customer service and call center industry, one of the most widely speculated industries to experience a global blow due to AI, Gartner noted that a survey of more than 320 customer service and support leaders conducted in October 2025, revealed that only 20% have actually reduced agent staffing due to AI. They noted that the majority report that headcount remains steady, even as these organizations support more customers. But it’s not just within the customer service industry that we are seeing this AI layoff-to-hiring rebound. June saw Ford rehire more than 300 of its ex-employees as it realized that quality in manufacturing was not achievable with their AI replacements. Take the finance sector as another example. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia cut about 45 customer service roles after they installed an AI voice bot. They quickly reversed their decision and apologized to customers and ex-employees, offering their employees their jobs back as call volumes rose. Last year, the fintech Klarna paused hiring while claiming that AI could handle the work of 700 human agents. Later, the CEO admitted that due to a fall, due to a decline in quality, they needed to rebuild their human support structure. Why Are Employers Regretting Layoffs?These all point to the same undeniable message:Employers are laying off thousands of workers because of the promise of AI, often long before they've seen the reality of how efficiently it can work with minimal human input involved. The direct result is a reduction in quality, and the painful, regrettable feeling that they’ve made a costly mistake and have to walk back their workforce reduction plans.When I attended Workhuman Forum London in May this year, CEO Eric Mosley said something in his keynote that I’ll never forget: “Employers are betting on the promise of AI.”Proving his point, he referred to the MIT study which noted that 95% of enterprise-level Gen AI pilots are failing, and that more than 80% of AI projects fail, according to reports, wasting billions of dollars.And yet companies continue to pour billions more into AI investment while canceling out the very resource that is needed to ensure AI implementation sees real ROI: their people.Denis Machuel, Adecco’s CEO, put it like this to me in our recent interview:“It’s not humans versus AI; it’s humans with AI.”Machuel believes that organizations can accomplish a whole lot more when they redesign work around AI and encourage and empower their people to grow with it, rather than replacing teams or fragmenting teams entirely.This people-first approach builds and restores trust in your organization and its leadership, not to mention the positive ripple effects it has on your employer brand.Teams that are empowered by AI and learn to create entire new workflows and processes with it are able to remain innovative, quickly adapt, and at the same time retain higher quality standards while working at speed. A “humans with AI” approach empowers teams to do their best work while preserving the human judgment that drives innovation.gettyHow Employers And Laid-Off Workers Can PrepareSo, here’s what I recommend to people leaders and executives:First, invest heavily in upskilling your workforce for AI skills (the technical and especially the non-technical competencies like judgement and workflow redesign) before cutting down headcount.Second, gain input from your teams on their operational and workflow pain-points and bottlenecks. Establish work groups or focus groups for each team and department to come together and decide how AI will impact and positively benefit their work. This will, of course, be led by their designated middle managers, but it will also be spearheaded by AI champions within the team--those who are already ahead and foremost in experimenting enthusiastically with AI.And finally, use this intelligence to inform your organization’s people strategy and to ensure that every employee and every team is empowered by AI to do their best work and be human (apply judgement, build partnerships, establish credibility and trust) without the administrative strain of busywork.And to those who’ve been displaced from their jobs because of AI, don’t lose hope: your human-first skills still matter. Your expertise is still valuable. You just need to repackage it and reimagine your career trajectory against the backdrop of AI. That’s how you raise your value in a highly competitive job market.