No Company Has Admitted to Replacing Workers With AI in New York
More than 160 companies in New York state have filed notices of mass layoffs since last March. None – in a group that includes AmazonGoldman Sachs, and other hiring employers AI tools– attributed to them staff cuts in those applications to “technological innovation or automation.”
That option was added 11 months ago to a mandatory question about paperwork that companies with 50 or more employees must submit to the state to report major job losses. New York's Department of Labor told WIRED that, as of late January, no employer had highlighted tech as the reason for its reduction in staff.
Over the past few years, many companies have celebrated offloading repetitive tasks such as customer service, salesand accounting to AI systems. But say they are dumping human workers in favor of AI agents or robots may risk reputational damage. And economists face challenges to trace redundancies to technical progress because companies can take decades to completely reorganize to new ways of working.
Enter New York Governor Kathy Hochul. To get a better handle with the current reality, she ordered the Department of Labor to begin questioning whether AI had been the impetus for layoffs. New York became the first state with an AI option, according to legal experts.
New York businesses can select multiple reasons from a list of 17 total that also includes “bankruptcy,” “merger,” “relocation,” and “other” on Mandatory Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings. If a company were to select the technology and automation option, they would receive an additional question asking them to specify the technology that is taking over work, such as AI, robotics, or “software modernization.”
More than 750 notices spanning 162 employers and affecting nearly 28,300 employees have followed the rollout without coming to AI. The results suggest that companies can be dodging the AI question. Or it's a sign that workers have no more to fear than the traditional drivers of layoffs.
Some of the filters include caterers and retailers whose staff are not widely linked to capable AI replacements. On the other hand, Goldman Sachs led the way with more than 4,100 workers affected by layoffs or closings of locations, according to New York records. Amazon was among the top 10 with 660 affected workers. Morgan Stanley, another AI adopter, reported 260 workers out of a job.
Intern, Goldman Sachs linked his dismissals last year of AI's potential to unlock significant productivity gains. Amazon warned ahead of its latest waves of layoffs, which affected over 30,000 workers in total, that benefits of AI would lead to job cuts. An unnamed source told Bloomberg that a small part of Morgan Stanley's layoffs reflected AI and automation use. The companies operate around the world, so it's possible that only employees outside of New York were tapped for AI.
Overall, nearly 55,000 US companies attributed job cuts to AI adoption last year, according to an analysis of public statements by the job search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
However, none of these developments reinforces what appears in the unique New York data the challenge with answer the question on everyone's mind: “Will AI take my job?”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel says, “AI is not the reason behind the vast majority” of cuts and that instead the goal is to “reduce layers, increase ownership, and help reduce bureaucracy.”
Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Morgan Stanley did not respond to requests for comment.
Accuracy Checks
WARN filings are meant to give state agencies advance notice of cuts so they can ramp up services to help people find new jobs quickly. Businesses face $500 daily fines for non-compliance with filing requirements.
Kristin Devoe, a spokeswoman for the governor, says the Department of Labor follows up with each employer to ensure the accuracy of filings. In the case of Amazon, for example, the company cited “economics” as the reason for layoffs, according to Devoe. It explained to the department that employees who had been hired during the pandemic to meet the current excitement in online shopping were no longer needed.
