Sam Altman says there is some “AI washing”, where companies blame AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, alongside “real displacement by AI” of some jobs

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, suggests that companies may be using AI as a scapegoat for layoffs, attributing some job losses to economic factors rather than AI. According to Altman, while AI is displacing some jobs, a significant portion of layoffs are due to other reasons. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that only about 55,000 layoffs in 2025 were directly attributed to AI, which is less than 1% of all job losses for the year.