MIT report debunks AI as the true cause of recent tech layoffs

A new analysis from MIT Technology Review, written by David Rotman, pours cold water on the widespread panic that AI is wiping out white-collar jobs. Rotman argues that the massive layoffs at tech giants like Meta, Coinbase and Cisco stem from macroeconomic headwinds—rising interest rates, cost-cutting and restructuring—not from automation replacing roles. He specifically calls out Meta: the company cut roughly 8,000 employees (10% of its global workforce), yet reassigned 7,000 of those roles to new AI-related projects. At the same time, Meta raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion, signaling heavy investment in AI infrastructure rather than a retreat from hiring.

The report cautions that companies often deploy AI as a convenient scapegoat for broader restructuring, inflating public fear with no factual basis. Rotman warns this exaggerated narrative distorts government policies, corporate planning and the public debate around employment. The actual economic data shows AI is currently automating and modernizing existing workflows, not triggering mass structural unemployment. For tech professionals, the takeaway is clear: the layoffs you’re seeing are about belt-tightening and reallocation, not a robot apocalypse.