AI needs other workers

I've read in several media outlets that Amazon plans to lay off 1,200 employees at its Madrid and Barcelona offices. And that Google, Microsoft, Meta… are following suit. They're citing "a correction in the tech sector" after the pandemic boom. As if the digital world had deflated. Really?

Let's take a look at the numbers. Alphabet (Google) has gone from $182 billion in revenue in 2020 to over $350 billion in 2024. Microsoft, from $143 billion to $245 billion. Meta, from $86 billion to $164 billion. Amazon, from $386 billion to $638 billion. And profits have followed suit: they've all grown. There were a few minor dips in 2022 and 2023, yes, but nothing significant. Overall, they're all earning two or three times what they were before COVID.

So why are they laying people off? The explanation is different. It's not a downsizing due to the crisis; it's a restructuring. Artificial intelligence has entered the scene and is reshaping everything: capital, priorities, teams.

During the pandemic, these companies hired thousands of people. They had to capitalize on the digital explosion of a world in lockdown. But those projects are no longer growing—traditional software, hardware, certain advertising divisions—What has now exploded is AI, cloud computing, algorithms, and the massive development of applications. It's not a crisis, it's a shift. An industrial reconversion, like those experienced by mines or shipyards decades ago.

In other words: the first wave of layoffs caused by AI isn't caused by AI itself, but by the people needed to work with it. Train drivers are being let go to change trains.

I remember when I started working. In my marketing department, there was only one computer. Just one. We took turns using it, and we had to book an appointment to print the price lists. The team's three secretaries were constantly busy, juggling calls, paper emails, and the incessant ringing of faxes. Four years later, everyone had a computer. There were no longer three secretaries, just one. But the other two weren't out on the street: they received IT training and were dedicated to training the sales team to digitize order fulfillment.

This is happening right now. Every industrial restructuring comes at a price. But it also holds promise. Joseph Schumpeter called it "creative destruction." The old structure collapses so that another can rise.

But it's not AI replacing people – not yet; that will come later – but rather the need for different people to develop AI, which will require relocating and retraining millions of people.