Work & Economy Why AI hasn’t triggered mass layoffs — yet Illustration by Stuart Kinlough/Ikon Images Sy Boles Harvard Staff Writer September 29, 2026 7 min read Artificial intelligence can do some jobs already, but experts say CEOs have good reasons to keep humans on the payroll If you’re looking for omens of an AI jobs apocalypse, you can certainly find them. News outlets report more layoffs attributed to AI this year than last. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei famously said in 2025 that AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Entry-level job postings have fallen by up to 73 percent in four years, by some counts. Other data points are more reassuring. Largely b...