Welcome back. This week, we have a guest post from Emily Hamilton, a rising star in journalism who's also been helping to build Macro Talk. She digs into how companies are talking about layoffs — and comms experts Eleanor Hawkins and Paul Argenti weigh in on the role layoff announcements now play in an AI era.

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By Emily Hamilton

Two top AI leaders have been walking back their stance that AI will significantly hurt jobs, WSJ reported over the July Fourth weekend.

The topic, which drew tens of thousands of readers on LinkedIn, pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman saying in late May that they’d been “pretty wrong on the social and economic implications” of AI, and that the AI industry “underestimated how much we’re going to be able to keep people at the center of everything.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also softened his tone, explaining last month that his alarmist layoff warnings were intended to give “both policymakers and the private sector … the best chance to adapt and respond,” and not because he was “trying to be a ‘prophet of doom.’”

Some context

Prior to this recent messaging retreat, companies had leaned into AI transformation as a driver of layoffs. 

In shareholder letters, op-eds, and social media posts, leaders described how AI has fundamentally changed work, explained the need to be intentional about winning the AI era, and outlined their thought process in great detail.

-Block founder Jack Dorsey wrote that intelligence tools “have changed what it means to build and run a company” when the company announced 4,000 job cuts in February. 

-Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an April blog post announcing a 16% workforce cut that AI has enabled the company to “reduce repetitive work” and drive efficiency. 

-In early May, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced 700 job cuts in what he called a “new way of working.” 

More broadly, AI was the leading cause of layoffs for four consecutive months from March through June, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The reality

Some of this may be “AI-washing,” or over-inflating AI’s impact, former Axios Communicators author Eleanor Hawkins told Macro Talk. For others, it might be due to “really messy” books.

“You have to take a look at how AI is actually being used in the company, and if it is that one-to-one replacement, or if it is … we're spending too much on AI, and now we have to cut into other things,” she said.

But there’s a clearer through line in the communications strategy and what it signals about the role of layoff announcements in this moment.

In the 20th century, announcements typically served to explain that a company had no other choice, as mass cuts were rarer and often made during recessions, according to Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

“Today, I think it’s more about protecting trust during transformation,” Argenti told Macro Talk.

“Companies used to explain layoffs primarily to employees and investors. Today, they're communicating simultaneously [to] employees, prospective employees, customers, regulators, social media, and AI systems that will summarize the story for everybody.”

By positioning job cuts alongside AI, companies can frame their decisions as a growth strategy — “presenting layoffs as evidence that they're adapting to this new future” — and not a retreat from some external force, according to Argenti.

“You could make this point for everyone — that narrative itself is becoming a competitive signal,” he said. “We’re moving from defensive explanations to aspirational explanations.”

🏁 The signal: That stance “can be a powerful strategic message,” he added.
“But only if employees believe AI is part of a broader workforce strategy, rather than just a convenient explanation for reducing headcount.”

▶ The play: In general, it can be easier to lean into the AI-washing message than to admit to over-hiring or a bigger corporate strategy shift, Hawkins also noted. 

“AI is becoming the punching bag for a lot of issues,” she said. 

“And to be fair, it was the leaders in the AI space who opened up that window, right?”

Continue reading on Macro Talk:

-AI heats inflation

-What’s really driving job cuts?

-The AI story is turning

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