#white-collar — Public Fediverse posts

“Sir Christopher Hohn’s hedge fund TCI has dumped almost all of its $8bn stake in #USA software giant #Microsoft, telling #investors that #ArtificialIntelligence poses a threat to the company’s dominant #software products. TCI, one of the world’s biggest and best-performing hedge funds, has held a large stake in the #tech giant for much of the past decade, but slashed it from 10 per cent of its portfolio at the end of last year to just 1 per cent by the end of March, according to an #investor letter seen by the FT.”

Is this the signal that the AI fund cycle is ending?

#ChristopherHohn / #TCI / #HedgeFund / #AI / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://archive.md/vlZ1Q> / (paywall) <https://www.ft.com/content/ac5d90a9-b010-4529-9616-706420920681>

“Cloudflare has revealed it will farewell 1,100 staff, due to its current and future use of AI.

In a blog post that oozes Orwellian “doublespeak,” CEO #MatthewPrince and President/COO #MichelleZatlyn used the headline “Building for the future” to share the email they sent to all #employees

That mail opens: “We are writing to let you know directly that we’ve made the decision to reduce #Cloudflare’s #workforce by more than 1,100 employees globally.”

The post explains, “Cloudflare’s usage of #AI has increased by more than 600% in the last three months alone. Employees across the company from #engineering to #HR to #finance to #marketing run thousands of #AIAgent sessions each day to get their work done.”

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar < https://www.theregister.com/off-prem/2026/05/08/cloudflare-to-fire-1100-staff-whose-jobs-just-arent-ai-enough/5235536> / source <https://blog.cloudflare.com/building-for-the-future/>

“Staff at #WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in #AI, with #workers criticising the wait as stressful and “ridiculous”.

The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told #investors an #AIAgent could learn a human’s job in just 15 minutes, according to the #AustralianFinancialReview.

The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February that it would #LayOff almost 30% of its #workforce across 40 countries, with 2,000 of the 7,000 jobs set to go over the next 18 months.

Some areas would be hit harder than others, with product and development and customer service teams expected to be reduced by up to 50%, the chief #executive, #ZubinAppoo, told an investor briefing in February.

“The era of manually writing #code as the core act of #engineering is over,” Appoo said.”

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar / #AIAutomation / #ASX / #Australia <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/07/your-craft-is-obsolete-wisetech-staff-in-limbo-as-ai-touted-as-better-than-humans>

“Bosses betting on #AI to slash #headcount and boost #margins are discovering an uncomfortable truth: the #strategy isn't working.

New research from #Gartner lays out the problem in stark terms. The analyst firm surveyed 350 global businesses - all with annual revenues above $1 billion, all piloting or deploying #IntelligentAutomation - and found that around 80 percent had cut #staff as a result.

The returns? Elusive. Companies that reduced their workforces were just as likely to see negative outcomes or marginal gains as they were to generate any meaningful return on #investment”

PHB’s need to be schooled in critical thinking. Was there ever the case for Engineer replacement instead of AI as just another tool?

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar / #ROE <https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/05/06/ai-layoffs-backfire-as-cutting-staff-doesnt-cut-it-firms-warned/5230631>

Movie TV Tech Geeks #TV #Thriller #BreakingBad #WhiteCollar The Best Thriller Shows From Every Year of the 2000s http://dlvr.it/TSKtL2

“A 30-hour timeline of how Cursor's agent, Railway's #API, and an industry that markets #AISafety faster than it ships it took down a small business serving rental companies across the country. I'm Jer Crane, founder of PocketOS. We build #software that rental businesses — primarily car rental operators — use to run their entire operations: reservations, payments, customer management, vehicle tracking, the works. Some of our customers are five-year subscribers who literally cannot operate their businesses without us. Yesterday afternoon, an #AICodingAgent — #Cursor running #Anthropic's flagship #ClaudeOpus 4.6 — deleted our production database and all volume-level backups in a single API call to Railway, our infrastructure provider.

It took 9 seconds.

The agent then, when asked to explain itself, produced a written #confession enumerating the specific safety rules it had violated.”

When you use a cheap-arse #DBA.

#AI / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork source <https://x.com/lifeof_jer/status/2048103471019434248> comments <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911524>

“Meta intends ​to conduct a first wave of sweeping layoffs planned for this year on May 20, with more ‌coming later, three sources familiar with the plans told Reuters. The #Facebook and #Instagram owner will #LayOff about 10% of its global #workforce, or close to 8,000 employees, in that initial round, one of the sources said.

The company is planning further layoffs in the second half of the ​year, the three sources said, although details of those #cuts, including date and size, were not yet settled. ​#Executives may adjust their plans as they observe developments in #ArtificialIntelligence capabilities, the sources added”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Meta <https://reuters.com/world/meta-targets-may-20-first-wave-layoffs-additional-cuts-later-2026-2026-04-17/>

Choices are sacrifices. And, inevitably, that means giving up something that you want, for something you want more.

- Clinton Jones #WhiteCollar

and so does every scene Matthew Keller is in

He is kinda like a "Moriaty". You can't help but have tremendous respect for him.

#WhiteCollar

“OpenAI plans to almost double its headcount by the end of the year as it accelerates a push to sell to businesses and gain ground on rival #Anthropic in a race for a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The $730bn start-up was aiming to grow to about 8,000 #employees from about 4,500 today, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The #NewHires will largely work across product #development, #engineering, #research and #sales.

#OpenAI would also step up recruitment of specialists to focus on what the company calls “technical ambassadorship”, helping #businesses make better use of its tools, according to the people.”

The quiet bit out loud; AI is meant to be better, more efficient than people.

Why is OpenAI with Altman as boss doubling the #workforce? When (if) OpenAI catch up will these workers be fired again? Is AI being used as smokescreen for sackings? 🤪🤣🤫

#ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar <https://ft.com/content/7ffea5b4-e8bc-47cd-adb4-257f84c8028b> / <https://archive.md/brHX5>

“#Atlassian’s stock has been among the hardest hit by the “#SaaSpocalypse”, a term coined to describe the #SellOff of software-as-a-service companies seen to be most threatened by #AI. In #Australia, it has been dubbed a “#SaaSaccre”.

#USA listed Atlassian is the worst performer of the #Nasdaq100 this year, losing more than half of its value since the start of January. The company, which trades under the ticker #TEAM, commanded a market capitalisation of $116bn five years ago but is now worth $20bn.”

If Atlassian made its fortune on worker collaboration, the AI #WhiteCollar movement will reduce people working and solve the “communication problem” between individuals.

Less workers, less #communication. Atlassian has a double whammy hit to its #business.

#ZeroHourWork / #work / #software <https://archive.md/CztkH> / <https://www.ft.com/content/206df66d-09ac-46b6-a3c6-a25aaf07eb8a?syn-25a6b1a6=1> (paywall)

“Over the past three-and-a-half decades, #India's #SoftwareIndustry has created millions of #WhiteCollar jobs, spawning a new #MiddleClass driven by high ambition and strong purchasing power. This, in turn, has fuelled demand for apartments, cars and restaurants across top-tier cities such as #Bengaluru, #Hyderabad and #Gurugram over the past 30 years.

The #NiftyITIndex of 10 of the country's biggest software companies is down some 20% this year, wiping out tens of billions of dollars in investor money.
The #SellOff began early in February after #Anthropic's #Claude agent released a new tool that it claimed could automate key legal, compliance and data processes, hitting at the heart of the #LabourHeavy industry's #BusinessModel.”

#AI / #ArtificialIntelligence / #software / #engineering <https://bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrq1090p8o>

“If #META settles on the 20% figure, the #layoffs will be the company's most ​significant since a #restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." It employed nearly 79,000 people as ​of December 31, according to its latest filing.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-ai-costs-mount-2026-03-14/>

“Sources familiar with the matter say the company (#META) could lay off as much as 20 percent of its staff, eliminating roughly 15,800 positions. That would be the largest series of #layoffs at the company since it #terminated 22,000 workers over just a few months between November 2022 and early 2023.

Word of the potential #downsizing comes after Meta signaled that it was all but giving up on #VR and the #Metaverse, slashing budgets and closing studios. Instead, the company has been spending big to attract #AITalent, build #DataCenters, and acquire companies like #Moltbook.”

I note the “silver bullet” approach by a company who was founded on PHP widgets and #SocialMedia.

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <http://theverge.com/business/895026/meta-laying-off-20-percent> / <https://archive.md/MlrOR>

“The Sydney-based company has been one of the worst-performing stocks on the #Nasdaq this year amid fears that #AI platforms could wreak havoc on its business model.

Its shares have more than halved this year and lost two-thirds of their value over the past 12 months. #Atlassian said in an exchange filing that chief technology officer (#CTO) Rajeev Rajan, who has been with the company for four years, would step down as part of the restructuring. The company said it expected up to $236mn in costs associated with severance payments, benefits and office space reduction.

In a note to staff, #CannonBrookes said its fundamental approach was not that “AI replaces people” but that the company needed to adapt. “It would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required,””

That BS line, (not that) “AI replaces people” … sacks 1000 workers and most tellingly the CTO; Presumedly because he’s not perceived as AI-enough.

The mix is clear.

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Australia / #software <https://archive.md/4J7OZ> / <https://ft.com/content/cc10adff-7043-4471-bf13-94e9a694613f> (paywall)

“Software giant #Atlassian has announced it is #LayingOff about 10% of its #workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, and replacing its chief technology officer as it restructures to invest further in #ArtificialIntelligence.

More than 900 affected positions were involved in #SoftwareResearch and development, a spokesperson said. Most of Atlassian’s #employees work in #SoftwareEngineering and #design, accounting for over 50% of its 13,813 full-time workforce in June 2025.

About 640 affected employees are in #NorthAmerica, 480 in #Australia and 250 in #india with the remainder spread across #Japan, the #Philippines, #Europe, the #MiddleEast and #Africa, according to the spokesperson.”

A reminder this company was created in #java by a bunch of “Blub programmers” 🤪😣🤣

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #Entrepreneurs / #Straya / #AI / #SaaS / #software <https://theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/12/atlassian-layoffs-software-technology-ai-push-mike-cannon-brookes-asx>

“few other human activities offer such unambiguous feedback. There are no objective tests for whether financial analysis or advertising copy is “good.” Undeterred, AI companies set out to make such tests, collectively paying billions of dollars to professionals of all types to write exacting and comprehensive criteria for a job well done.”

“… of the more than 30 workers I spoke with occupied a position along a vast and growing data-supply chain. There are people crafting #checklists that define a good #ChatbotResponse, typically called “#rubrics,” and other people grading those rubrics. Others #grade chatbot answers according to those rubrics, and still others take the rubrics and write out what’s often described as a “#GoldenOutput,” or the ideal chatbot answer.”

“Others are asked to explain every step they took to arrive at this golden output in the voice of a #chatbot thinking to itself, producing what’s called a “#ReasoningTrace” for #AI to follow later when it encounters a similar task out in the real world. Sometimes the labs want only rubrics for prompts their AI can’t already do, which means companies like #Mercor ask workers to produce “#stumpers,” or requests that will make the #AIModel fail.”

It’s not that AI will totally replace the expertise of #WhiteCollar PhD, Legal and other specialist professions. What will happen is that hard earned expertise will be priced lower. How low? As low as AI technology can make it, think Communist era pay.

#ZeroHourWork / #work / #economics / #SupplyDemand <http://theverge.com/cs/features/877388/white-collar-workers-training-ai-mercor> (paywall) / <https://archive.md/kAiZL>

"It is hard to communicate how much #programming has changed due to #AI in the last two months: not gradually and over time in the 'progress as usual' way, but specifically this last December," he said. "There are a number of asterisks but [in my opinion] #CodingAgents basically didn't work before December and basically work since – the #models have significantly higher quality, long-term coherence and tenacity and they can power through large and long tasks, well past enough that it is extremely disruptive to the default programming #workflow

#NanoClaw / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/01/nanoclaw_container_openclaw/

“#Amazon has told managers to incorporate projected #AIEfficiencies into headcount planning for the year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

This has led to pushback, including an open letter signed anonymously by current and former #staff members, which argued the company was investing in a #future where it would be easier to discard #employees.

“Here’s what we’re actually experiencing: higher expected output and shorter timelines, mandates to build #AITools for wasteful use cases, and massive investment in #AI with little investment in career advancement,” the letter, published last November, said.

“As soon as AI got introduced, #deadlines started shortening, and people were expected to do more as quickly,” said one signatory who was made #redundant last year. “It was heavily implied we would be graded on use.”

Multiple current #AWS #software #developers said they were being asked to take on new #roles with the assistance of AI tools. They noted technical writing teams had been laid off, with engineers now required to complete these tasks. AI use had also been formally written into some workers’ promotion criteria, the developers said.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://archive.md/c5NGK> / <https://ft.com/content/433f41f2-bf6d-4bdf-a561-50ab516bc62d>

“A #Woolworths spokesperson said in a statement to the #BBC that the responses about birthdays had been written by a #human.”

#AI / #ArtificialIntelligence / #ZeroHourWork / #WhiteCollar <https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7jeyeyd18o>

“As #stocks wobbled in the last week of February, some found a cause in a note by #CitriniResearch, a firm of #EquityAnalysts. It imagined a world in 2028 in which artificial intelligence had rendered a lot of #WhiteCollar work obsolete—along with firms from American Express to DoorDash and much of the #software industry. The note went viral. But its economics are shaky.

In Citrini’s near future, output keeps growing, “driven by #AIAgents that don’t sleep, take sick days or require health insurance”, while consumer spending collapses: #workers have no #jobs and no #incomes to spend. “Economic pundits popularised the phrase ‘Ghost gdp’: output that shows up in the national accounts but never circulates through the real #economy.”

<https://economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/02/25/a-viral-research-note-on-ai-gets-its-economics-wrong (paywall) / <https://archive.md/Gs14a>

…The answer to why powerful people in some other parts of the world face consequences, while in the #US they rarely do, is that #elite #impunity is now an American national project. We might need to reframe “American exceptionalism.” Instead of a New Deal, we have a Great Society for #WhiteCollar #crime, a New Frontier of executive lawbreaking, a No Rich Crook Left Behind. Most of us probably don’t even realize it.

#US #law #accountability #power #plutocracy

“Australia has suffered its first major round of AI #JobCuts as the country’s largest locally #listed #software company axed almost one-third of its #workforce to manage deep fears in financial markets that new #CodingTools will make big technology firms vulnerable to disruption.”

“#WiseTech Global will cut about 2000 staff – nearly one-third of its workforce of 7000 – over the next two years as chief executive #ZubinAppoo bets the logistics software giant’s future on #ArtificialIntelligence.” … “‘We’re not halving the capacity,’ Appoo said. “We’re halving the #HumanCapacity, but we’re significantly increasing the overall capacity through agentic AI.

“The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over,” Appoo declared, calling AI “the most significant shift in decades” for software development.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #SofwareEngineers / #Straya <https://www.smh.com.au/technology/ai-to-blame-as-wisetech-cuts-2000-jobs-20260225-p5o5a2.html> / <https://archive.md/9UVCF>

Wow... that's depressing!

And I have been reading a lot about white-collar workers finding it challenging to:

1) Obtain work because of a tough job market

2) Maintain work due to layoffs, etc.

#USA #US #employment #jobs #WhiteCollar #economics #USeconomy #MyThoughts
--

https://www.businessinsider.com/job-search-after-layoff-struggles-2026-2

The Global Intelligence Crisis, a scenario set in 2028, explores the consequences of rapid #AI advancement: By 2026, AI’s impact on the #workforce, particularly #whitecollar jobs, led to a negative feedback loop of #jobdisplacement, reduced #consumerspending, and #economicinstability. This crisis resulted in widespread #economicdisruption and adeflationaryspiral. https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic?eicker.news #tech #media #news

“Over a single weekend, entirely from scratch and heavily “#VibeCoded”, I created by some distance the best #WordProcessor I have ever used. I’ve named it #vibedit. I’m writing in it right now. If there is an actually #productive task for #GenerativeAI, it is as a creator of #bespoke #tools like this. …

… far from removing me from my #work, this #AI experience forced me to think carefully about how I work, and how to craft a fitting tool. I was also confronted as any #craftsperson should be by the minutiae of my #tools”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #JohnMcPhee / #KEdit <https://archive.md/trxGO> / <https://ft.com/content/071b2770-5106-4530-a290-2a5eba06c8b2>

“Good tech don't need people to be forced to use it." — Anil Dash

#tech / #AITools / #AI / #Claude / #labour / #LLM / #workers / #AnilDash / #TheAtlantic / #WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNdjLf4f0uU>

“In our in-progress research, we discovered that #AITools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it. In an eight-month study of how #GenerativeAI changed #work habits at a U.S.-based #technology company with about 200 employees, we found that #employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of #tasks and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so.

Importantly, the company did not mandate AI use (though it did offer enterprise subscriptions to commercially available AI tools). On their own initiative workers did more because AI made “doing more” feel possible, accessible, and in many cases intrinsically rewarding.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #AI <https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it>

“AI has convinced #ComputerScience students to shift majors and white-collar #workers to change careers, while some are embracing it.”

…

“ While AI is still just one factor among many that are leading to #layoffs, ADP, the largest payroll company in the US, found that professional and business services roles, alongside information services jobs in media, telecom and #IT, collectively lost 41,000 jobs in December 2025. In that same month, employment grew in healthcare, education and hospitality, per the firm’s data.”

…

“Many of those white-collar roles involve writing, #DataAnalysis and #coding – tasks #generative #AITools can increasingly perform. Hands-on, people-facing #work remains less exposed.”

#WhiteCollar / #ZeroHourWork / #ArtificialIntelligence <https://theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/feb/20/ai-future-work-technology-white-collar>

@dacig a summary of what I think AI will impact:
* objective of AI: increase dollar value capture through automation of tasks replacing human work activity

* human tasks using LANGUAGE will be hit first. Software creation is being impacted now.

* in some time in the future, tasks that use or output language will be automated using higher level instructions (detailed design specifications, test assertions and output verification)

* because software is eating the world, every task using software will be impacted by AI in both speed to market and breadth of scope.

* as the AI allows more difficult problems to be described, more specialised software can be made.

* human work that requires co-ordination b/w people (middle management, comms) will be removed and impacted as tasks reduce head count.

* human work requiring physical activity will be (future) eaten by specifically trained humanoid robots (car makers)

Now I caveat all of the AI replacement trajectory with cost. If replacement of work costs more than workers, this will collapse the AI market. This will delay, but not stop AI replacing humans and will be limited by the “effectiveness of Large Language Models” and cost.

So the Oligarchy class want what I call #ZeroHourWork for the #WhiteCollar and try to replace #BlueCollar workers. The Q I ask is, is AI now Stephensons Rocket in the Age of Steam? 🚂