The tech industry’s ongoing embrace of artificial intelligence has triggered another wave of sweeping job cuts in 2025, with IBM, Business Insider, and LinkedIn eliminating a combined total of more than 8,500 jobs — a signal that automation is not just reshaping the workplace but rapidly replacing human labor altogether.
IBM alone has laid off nearly 8,000 employees, targeting mostly human resources positions — one of the first major departments to be hollowed out by AI systems. Business Insider has slashed approximately 8 percent of its 2023 workforce — this time cutting 21 percent, which amounts to more than 300 jobs, while LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, has let go of 281 workers across California, hitting software engineers, designers, product managers, and remote staff.
The cumulative toll: over 8,500 jobs — just from these three companies.
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While corporate leaders tout AI as a tool for efficiency and expansion, tech executives are also sounding the alarm. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI startup Anthropic, warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years, especially roles in HR, legal, marketing, customer service, and content creation.
“We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,” Amodei told Axios. “I don’t think this is on people’s radar.”
IBM: HR on the Chopping Block
IBM’s layoffs targeting nearly 8,000 staffers are concentrated in human resources, a department once seen as irreplaceably people-driven. CEO Arvind Krishna confirmed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the company has used AI to replace the work of “a couple hundred human resources workers,” and suggested many more roles are being quietly phased out.
Krishna bluntly noted that automation isn’t just about improving productivity — it’s about cost-cutting and strategic realignment.
“AI gives you more investment to put into other areas,” he said. Despite the layoffs, Krishna claimed IBM’s overall headcount is up, as the company expands in other AI-forward sectors.
Business Insider: Pivoting to AI and Events
At Business Insider, the axe fell on more than 300 employees, marking the third round of layoffs in three years under German parent company Axel Springer. The company is scaling back on underperforming content categories and shutting down most of its e-commerce operations, citing a dependence on unstable search traffic.
CEO Barbara Peng said the company will focus on segments where readers “subscribe, engage and consistently return,” though she did not specify which areas those are. At the same time, the media outlet is betting on AI, announcing the expansion of “multiple AI-driven products,” including an AI-powered paywall and generative search tools. Peng said AI will also be used to scale business operations.
The Business Insider Union, affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York, slammed the layoffs and AI integration in a scathing statement.
“Let’s be clear: This is far from anything new,” the union said. “This is the third round of layoffs in as many years and it is unacceptable that union members and other talented coworkers are again paying the price for the strategic failures of Business Insider’s leadership.”
Union representatives also called Peng’s mention of AI in her layoff memo “tone deaf.” “No AI tool or technology should or can take the place of human beings,” the statement said.
LinkedIn: Engineers and Product Managers Cut
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn filed a WARN notice in California confirming 281 job cuts, affecting workers in Mountain View, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Carpinteria, and remote locations across the state. The majority of layoffs hit software engineers, including senior and staff-level coders, and others working in machine learning, DevOps, and systems infrastructure.
The cuts are part of Microsoft’s broader plan to trim 6,000 jobs globally. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that AI now writes up to 30 percent of the company’s code, raising questions about the long-term demand for entry-level and mid-level software engineers.
Microsoft has not given a public explanation for the layoffs at LinkedIn, and unlike in 2023 — when CEO Ryan Roslansky sent out an internal memo after a 716-person layoff — there has been no detailed communication to staff this time.
Displaced employees have taken to LinkedIn itself to share their frustration. One posted a picture from a hospital bed and wrote, “If I can beat cancer, I can beat this.” Another described how he was preparing for a client meeting before abruptly being let go. “Damn. They laid ya boy off,” wrote a third, summing up the shock many are now experiencing.
A Crossroads for the Tech Workforce
Across the tech industry, AI is reshaping the very nature of employment. While companies continue to pledge investment in new roles, the trajectory is sending a clear message that entry-level and support positions are vanishing, replaced by machines that can work faster, around the clock, and without pay.
Economists and labor advocates are warning that the trend may soon ripple beyond tech and into finance, legal services, and healthcare — sectors similarly reliant on white-collar administrative and analytical work. As AI grows more capable, even high-skilled roles may face redundancy.
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei said that while AI has massive potential to boost productivity, the workforce is not being prepared fast enough for the disruption.
With over 8,500 jobs already gone in the first half of 2025 from just three firms, that warning is no longer abstract. It’s becoming a reality.