AI Automates Job Tasks, Not Entire Positions-Yet
Companies are using artificial intelligence to eliminate specific work tasks rather than entire jobs, according to business leaders and consultants. The distinction matters as anxiety about job displacement spreads through offices nationwide.
AI was the top reason companies cited for job cuts in April, marking the second consecutive month, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. More than 49,000 job cuts have been attributed to AI so far this year.
But the reality is more nuanced. Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, said AI can technically automate 57% of work-related activities. That percentage, however, is spread across fragments of different jobs rather than eliminating entire positions.
"It's very few jobs that are actually entirely automated away by the current AI and robotics technology that's out there," Krivkovich said.
The Partial Job Approach
Nitin Seth, cofounder of consulting firm Incedo, said his company helps clients boost productivity by 20% to 25% using AI without cutting staff proportionally. AI handles specific parts of different roles, not complete jobs.
"You can't take one quarter of Lisa, one quarter of Jessica, one quarter of Nitin and one quarter of somebody else and make it one person," Seth said.
Companies are recalibrating existing positions around tasks that only humans can perform. That shift is most visible in software engineering, where 90% of tech workers now use AI tools, according to a Google survey.
Software Engineering Evolves
A software engineer's job involves far more than writing code. It includes reviewing code, designing systems, troubleshooting problems and deciding what to build.
Sujata Sridharan, a software engineer who has spent roughly a decade in the field, said her work still requires problem solving and critical thinking. The execution now involves a mix of writing code and prompting AI.
"With AI being used more and more, the skills that are actually required on the job have shifted to: are you able to recognize what is the right code quality? Are you able to problem solve?" she said.
Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code at Anthropic, predicted that "software engineering" as a job title may disappear by year's end. He suggested "builder" might better describe roles where writing code becomes a smaller component.
Real Layoffs, But Limited Scope
Several companies have announced significant cuts tied to AI productivity gains. Block, the financial technology company, laid off 40% of its staff this year because AI enabled smaller teams to accomplish more work.
Coinbase is reducing staff by about 14% in part because AI allows engineers to "ship in days what used to take a team weeks," according to its CEO. Cloudflare reported that its AI use increased more than 600% in three months.
Dan Priest, PwC's US chief AI officer, said there may be "some job disruption on the horizon," but he isn't seeing mass layoffs at most companies and whole job categories aren't currently at risk.
The Skills Question
Most companies haven't yet adjusted employee metrics and incentives to reflect how AI is changing work, according to a Microsoft report surveying 20,000 workers across 10 countries. Many are still figuring out which skills human workers need.
The tech landscape continues to shift. Anthropic announced new AI agents built for financial work, like building pitchbooks and crafting credit memos, suggesting AI could move into higher-level tasks.
Umesh Ramakrishnan, cofounder and chief strategy officer at executive search firm Kingsley Gate, offered a sobering observation: "It starts at the bottom, and it keeps going up. And I don't know where it stops."
For HR professionals managing workforce planning, understanding how AI fragments jobs rather than eliminates them wholesale is critical. The focus should be on identifying which job components remain distinctly human and ensuring teams develop skills to work alongside AI tools. AI for CHROs can help HR leaders develop strategy around these shifts.
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