AI Era Turns Layoffs Into a Recurring Corporate Ritual

Tech giants are conducting repeated rounds of layoffs as they pivot toward AI, with Microsoft cutting about 4,800 jobs and others like Cloudflare, Cisco, Amazon, and Meta following suit. Executives frame these cuts as part of “continuous tuning” rather than recession-driven downsizing, reallocating savings to AI investments while trying to preserve core talent and institutional knowledge. Analysts warn that frequent cuts can erode morale and hamper long‑term competitiveness, especially as truly AI-native roles remain scarce and costly, prompting a focus on retraining current workers rather than wholesale replacements.