AI Jobs

The AI jobs conversation just got real. Not LinkedIn think-piece real — executive order from the fifth-largest economy on Earth real. On May 21, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping executive order directing state agencies to prepare workers, small businesses, and communities for the economic disruption AI is already delivering. It landed one day after Meta laid off 8,000 employees while announcing $145 billion in AI infrastructure spending. And it dropped hours after President Trump scrapped his own AI executive order because he “didn’t like certain aspects of it.” ...

The headlines are terrifying. AI was the number one reason companies cited for job cuts in both March and April 2026. Nearly 50,000 layoffs this year have been explicitly blamed on artificial intelligence. And yet — unemployment hasn’t spiked. The economy keeps adding jobs. Something doesn’t add up. That’s because the real story isn’t about AI replacing workers. It’s about AI disassembling jobs into component parts, keeping humans for some pieces, and automating others. The result is less dramatic than headlines suggest — but potentially more disorienting for the people living through it. ...

The pretense is officially over. For years, Wall Street executives delivered a comforting mantra: AI will enhance your work, not replace it. This week, as Q1 2026 earnings rolled in, that narrative crumbled in spectacular fashion. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo collectively reported $47 billion in profits — up 18% year-over-year — while shedding approximately 15,000 employees. More money, fewer humans. The math is brutal and undeniable. ...

When billionaires start worrying about their children’s job prospects, the rest of us should probably pay attention. “What will our kids do?” That’s the question Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas — the bank’s first-ever “global embodied AI strategist” — says was the single most common thing investors asked at last week’s TMT Conference in San Francisco. Not revenue projections. Not competitive moats. What happens to the next generation of workers. ...