Fed study links AI adoption to rising unemployment in tech

Dive Brief

• Occupations heavily adopting artificial intelligence (AI) have seen significant unemployment increases, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Read the full report here.
• The research highlights a "striking correlation" between AI prevalence and unemployment spikes since 2022, especially in technology sectors.
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revealed the company cut customer service staff from 9,000 to 5,000 after deploying AI agents. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy foresees AI reducing Amazon's workforce in coming years.

Dive Insight

Tech Sector Leads Job Cuts

The technology industry has been a major driver of job reductions in 2025, with 102,239 layoffs announced between January and August. (Challenger, Gray & Christmas report)

Salesforce’s Agentforce AI platform has handled over 1.4 million customer requests, allowing drastic workforce reductions.

"Because of the benefits and efficiencies of Agentforce, we’ve seen the number of support cases we handle decline and we no longer need to actively backfill support engineer roles," a Salesforce spokesperson said.

AI’s Uneven Impact

The Fed study notes:

• Steepest unemployment spikes in AI-reliant fields like computer and mathematical jobs.
• Smaller increases in blue-collar and personal service roles, where AI applicability is limited.

However, researchers caution:

"If generative AI drives sustained productivity growth, it could ultimately create new jobs and industries, potentially offsetting displacement effects."

Executive Perspectives

• Marc Benioff called AI adoption "the most exciting thing" for Salesforce.
• Andy Jassy stated AI will reshape Amazon’s workforce:

"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs."

Image: Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

The Fed researchers emphasize their analysis is preliminary, reflecting rapid AI evolution.