90% of executives say AI hasn't boosted productivity. Some are still cutting jobs

Companies are spending heavily on AI, but the payoff is proving slippery. A study cited from the Atlanta Federal Reserve found that about 90% of executives say AI has not yet lifted productivity at their firms. That matches a broader pattern: some of the productivity gains since 2021 may have come from remote work or from downsizing in places like tech, not from AI itself.

The sharper point in this piece is that layoffs may be part of the problem. The research described here links AI investment announcements with announcements of job cuts tied to AI, based on millions of job satisfaction reviews, thousands of financial performance reports, and hundreds of AI investment and layoff announcements from U.S. public companies over five years. The author’s argument is blunt: when companies use AI as a cover for cutting staff, they may be damaging the very worker sentiment that helps AI pay off.

That matters because the stock-market reaction to these layoff announcements was mostly underwhelming. The average return was close to zero, and more than half of the events drew a negative or near-zero response. Block was one exception, with its stock jumping when it said it would trim staff because of AI. But the broader pattern was muted, which suggests investors are not buying the easy story that fewer workers automatically means more value.

The employee side looks even uglier. AI-related comments on Glassdoor were more negative than reviews overall, with job security worries standing out above training gaps, weak upskilling, and doubts about whether AI actually improves productivity. When companies announced AI-linked layoffs, sentiment fell sharply. Meanwhile, management remained upbeat in roughly 10,000 earnings-call transcripts, but that optimism had no significant link to productivity. The conclusion here is simple: if workers feel AI is being used against them, the productivity boost never arrives.