In 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) transitioned from a boardroom buzzword to a primary driver of unemployment. The shift was surgical, targeting specific job functions that were once considered the bedrock of corporate tech.
According to data compiled by UK-based forex company RationalFX, nearly 245,000 jobs were lost in 2025 as companies swapped human salaries for software subscriptions.
Customer support: The first domino
The most visible victim of this transition was the customer support sector. Salesforce, a leader in CRM software, provided a stark example of this trend. CEO Marc Benioff announced that the company had slashed its customer support workforce nearly in half (from 9,000 positions to just 5,000) by deploying AI agents last year.
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Similarly, Amazon confirmed 14,000 job cuts specifically linked to AI adoption and the goal of making its corporate structure “leaner”. These 14,000 roles were part of a larger 20,000-person layoff wave at the company in 2025.
Amazon’s leadership described AI as “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet.” However, for thousands of employees in customer service and HR, that transformation meant the end of their livelihoods.
Replacing the “paper pushers”
The automation wave is also sweeping through HR, marketing, and financial operations. IBM, one of the industry’s oldest players, cut roughly 9,000 roles in 2025. While the company was tight-lipped about the specifics, reports indicated that the restructuring focused on non-tech jobs that could be partially replaced by AI. IBM successfully automated routine tasks such as drafting emails, managing internal queries, and analysing spreadsheets.
Professional services giant Accenture is executing a similar strategy. The firm announced a sweeping reduction of 11,000 employees over just three months as part of a US$865 million restructuring plan to pivot toward AI-driven operations. Even as it lays off thousands, it is doubling its AI and data specialist headcount, which now stands at 77,000.
The rise of “AI-first” hiring
The report by RationalFX highlights a disturbing trend: even when companies were not actively laying off, they were refusing to hire humans for roles that an AI can perform. Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn clarified that while the company would not necessarily fire existing staff, they would only hire a human if “the AI cannot do the job it is tasked with properly”. This “AI-first” hiring policy has already led to the elimination of hundreds of contractor positions at the language-learning app.
Also Read: Why Asia’s tech giants are cutting from the middle
As enter 2026, the “middle class” of tech — support, administration, and middle management — finds itself in the crosshairs of a technology that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t require benefits, and, increasingly, doesn’t make mistakes.
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