The AI efficiency illusion: why cutting 1.1 million jobs will stifle, not scale, your strategy

We are witnessing a false dawn of efficiency. Throughout 2025, corporate America has engaged in a frantic restructuring of the labor market, cutting more than 1.17 million jobs in the first 11 months of the year, a 54% increase from 2024. From the 14,000 corporate cuts at tech giants like Amazon to the nearly 300,000 federal civil service reductions, the narrative driving this contraction is uniform: we are shedding excess labor to make room for the streamlined, high-margin future of artificial intelligence.