AI isn’t working out how companies thought

The whole idea was that you could deploy AI, cut staff, watch ROI soar and get called a genius.

But that isn’t what’s happening, says a Gartner survey released in May that looked at 350 global businesses with at least $1 billion in annual revenue.

80% of the businesses surveyed cut headcount to fund or justify funding their AI investments, while 20% did not reduce staff.

And guess what? The 80% that cut staff saw financial results identical to the 20% that kept their teams intact.

Conventional thinking says leading companies are those that embrace AI and lay off workers. Gartner says the opposite is true.

The companies that use AI for worker amplification, focusing on speed, error reduction and freeing up experts for high-value work--they’re the “leaders.”

The companies that use AI as a replacement technology, trading human knowledge for salary reduction--they’re the “laggards.”

Here’s Gartner analyst Helen Poitevin: “Many CEOs turn to layoffs to demonstrate quick AI returns; however, this disposition is misplaced. Workforce reductions may create budget room but they do not create return. Organizations that improve ROI are not those that eliminate the need for people but those that amplify them by aggressively investing more in skills, roles and operating models that allow humans to guide and scale autonomous systems.”