Почему замена персонала искусственным интеллектом приводит к обратным результатам - и 5 способов, с помощью которых умные лидеры создают реальную ценность

• Некоторые фирмы сокращают рабочие места из-за ИИ и сожалеют о своих решениях.
• Умные бизнес-лидеры вместо этого сосредотачиваются на создании ценности.
• Они помогают профессионалам находить новые пути роста.

Отказ от увольнений с использованием искусственного интеллекта часто рассматривается как кратчайший путь к сокращению расходов. Специализированный сайт jobloss.ai, который отслеживает увольнения с использованием ИИ, сообщил, что 126 000 сотрудников в США потеряли работу в период с января 2025 по июнь 2026 года из-за факторов, связанных с ИИ.

Анкур Ананд, директор по информационным технологиям рекрутинговой компании Harvey Nash, сказал ZDNET, что легко понять, почему многие руководители рассматривают внедрение искусственного интеллекта как путь к сокращению расходов.

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"Первые сообщения от поставщиков, консультантов и даже некоторых советов директоров были сосредоточены на производительности, автоматизации и возможности делать больше с меньшими затратами", - сказал он. "Заголовки об увольнениях, связанных с ИИ, укрепляют мысль о том, что самый быстрый путь к созданию ценности лежит через сокращение числа сотрудников".

Эта позиция по умолчанию рисует мрачную картину для профессионалов, обеспокоенных сокращением рабочих мест с использованием ИИ.

Однако замена работников на ИИ не является гарантией успеха. На самом деле, все больше данных свидетельствует о том, что многие компании начинают осознавать ограниченность ИИ и даже сожалеют о некоторых своих решениях о сокращении рабочих мест.

Исследование, проведенное Careerminds, показало, что сокращение рабочих мест вряд ли приведет к созданию ценности, к которой стремятся руководители высшего звена. Три четверти организаций пришли к выводу, что увольнения с использованием ИИ обходятся дороже, чем они экономят, и девять из десяти компаний пересмотрели бы свои планы, если бы у них была такая возможность.

Чувство сожаления таково, что, по оценкам аналитиков Gartner, к 2027 году 50% компаний, которые списали сокращение численности персонала на искусственный интеллект, вновь наймут сотрудников для выполнения аналогичных функций.

Также: Компании, активно использующие искусственный интеллект, нанимают все больше людей, в том числе начального уровня

Короче говоря, предположил Ананд, фирмы, которые рассматривают искусственный интеллект в основном как инструмент снижения затрат, упускают более важную возможность ‑ объединить технологические возможности с передовым опытом человека для создания новой ценности для бизнеса.

"If your AI strategy starts and ends with headcount, you are using a growth technology to run a shrinkage plan," he said. "The leaders who win will use AI to create new value, not just cut costs."

Steve Lucas, CEO at integration technology specialist Boomi, told ZDNET that the starting point for value-based considerations should be a big dollop of circumspection about AI-enabled layoffs.

While emerging tech will change roles and responsibilities, many of the job cuts attributed to AI -- particularly in the IT industry -- are companies looking for a convenient excuse.

"The reality is that AI will have a massive impact on jobs," he said. "Some of it will be negative, but a lot of undue blame is being laid at the feet of AI today as a matter of convenience, by a lot of tech executives, when these are just layoffs -- that's what they are."

Also: AI is getting better at your job, but you have time to adjust, according to MIT

Lucas said professionals should question so-called experts who suggest AI will mean the end of work as we know it. After all, these are still early days for automation.

"We don't understand the change, and we can't fully see past it, and anyone who says they do is selling something," he said, before suggesting that pioneering companies will find ways to embrace AI to the advantage of their human workforce.

"I am an AI optimist for a long list of reasons," he said. "I believe that AI will help us live longer, healthier lives and make us profoundly more productive as a society."

Stephen Wood, chief operating officer at financial services firm Rathbones Asset Management, is another business leader who believes the impact of AI on the workplace will be positive rather than negative.

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He referred to the legal industry, where experts regularly assert that AI will disrupt employee roles and responsibilities. AI can do some of the work, but it has significant limits.

"The reality is that, yes, generative AI could do the job of a paralegal; it can go through untold amounts of cases, and, if you can get it not to hallucinate, it can write up everything you need to know," he told ZDNET. "However, how does anyone then become the lawyer who stands in the court during the case? You need to have people -- you need the experts."

Wood said he sees similar trends in his own industry. AI can be used to pick up some tasks, but not at the expense of human talent.

Also: How Workday and other software providers plan to survive AI

"I'm not thinking in any way that this is a technology that removes people. It certainly stops me from needing to hire as many people as possible, and it certainly makes me be able to do more, and it makes my people able to do more," he said.

"But ultimately, those skilled people still need to be there, and you still need to educate them, and they should benefit from AI, rather than let it be to their detriment."

Education is also a key part of the process for Tim Chilton, managing geospatial consultant at the UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey, who acts as his organization's internal AI champion.

One of his exploratory use cases centers on deploying Snowflake agentic AI technologies. Chilton told ZDNET that the initiative aims to give staff a chatbot-style interface that provides timely access to statistics, such as for a last-minute sales call, that might otherwise have taken days or weeks to surface.

Also: The 3 types of people who will excel in the AI agent era, according to tech leaders

In short, the initiative's objective is to enable existing staff via innovation, rather than replace human talent with AI.

"That's the approach we're trying to promote within our customer team," he said. "If you get on board with AI, you're going to be in charge and empowered as a team to use the best of this technology."

Internal professionals at the Ordnance Survey are even encouraged to define the balance between technological and human agency.

"They can say when enough is enough," he said. "And Snowflake has a limit for us. I don't want AI across everything. So, we're finding out where that balance is, where AI is usefully put into business workflows, and where it doesn't have a place now."

Also: AI agents are your new colleagues - how to get the best results

That kind of tightly defined process resonated with Harvey Nash's Anand, who said smart business leaders and their teams use AI to compress cycle times in critical processes, turning speed into revenue.

He gave these examples:

• Professional services firms are using gen AI to complete valuations and due diligence in days rather than weeks.
• AI-enabled software development teams are shipping features faster and capturing market opportunities sooner.
• Pharmaceutical firms are using AI authoring tools to reduce errors in clinical documents and regulatory filings.

Perhaps most importantly, said Anand, the effective exploitation of AI is not about slashing staff numbers but finding avenues to growth.

"The question is not whether AI will cut costs; it will," he said. "The real question is whether you will use it to build something bigger, better, and more valuable than what you have today."

Also: 40% of enterprises will scrap AI agents - 3 ways to ensure yours don't fail

Anand suggested business leaders and their teams looking to generate value from AI should focus on these five areas next:

1. Do not default to layoffs: Indiscriminate headcount cuts in anticipation of AI efficiency gains can destroy valuable knowledge and weaken your ability to innovate.
2. Redesign work, not just reduce it: Use AI to reshape processes and roles, so humans focus on judgment, relationships, and creativity while AI handles routine work.
3. Measure value beyond cost: Track cycle time, quality, scalability, new revenue, and risk reduction, not just labor savings.
4. Invest in people: Reskill and upskill staff to work with AI and create new roles that leverage human strengths alongside machine capabilities.
5. Recognize that AI will change workforces over time: Create lasting value by using AI as a platform for growth, not just a lever for shrinkage.

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