Fed study links AI adoption to rising unemployment in tech
Salesforce and Amazon CEOs highlight AI's role in job displacement as Federal Reserve research shows correlation between AI adoption and increased unemployment.
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:
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About the Author
Michael Rodriguez
AI Technology Journalist
Veteran technology journalist with 12 years of focus on AI industry reporting. Former AI section editor at TechCrunch, now freelance writer contributing in-depth AI industry analysis to renowned media outlets like Wired and The Verge. Has keen insights into AI startups and emerging technology trends.
