Globally, companies are falling into the "AI Layoff Trap," where they replace employees with AI and lay off workers to reduce costs and withstand competitive pressure.
According to economists' research, while such layoffs may seem to reduce costs for individual companies, when employees lose jobs and income across the entire nation, consumer demand and purchasing power decline. This ultimately harms sales across all businesses in the long run.
As companies cannot reduce their workforce without losing competitiveness against rivals, it appears everyone is rushing toward AI.
To solve this problem, researchers have proposed imposing an "Automation Tax" on companies that replace employees with AI.
The tax revenue could be redirected to employee retraining programs and assistance for affected workers, serving as a temporary solution to maintain consumer purchasing power.
Anthropic's CEO has also warned that the labor market transformation caused by AI is moving faster and more broadly than previous technological revolutions, raising concerns that it may be moving faster than the economic system can absorb.
Indeed, over 150,000 employees in the U.S. tech sector alone have been laid off by 2026. This includes not only major tech companies like Meta, Cisco, and Oracle, but also Estée Lauder in cosmetics, Heineken in beer production, and UPS in logistics. This wave has spread beyond the tech world to various global industries.
Ref: Nation Thailand
