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For decades now, we have been told that artificial intelligence systems will soon replace human workers. Sixty years ago, for example, Herbert Simon, who received a Nobel Prize in economics and a Turing Award in computing, predicted that machines will be capable, within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do. More recently, we have Daniel Susskinds 2020 award-winning book with the title that says it all: A World Without Work. Are these bleak predictions finally coming true? ChatGPT turns 3 years old this month, and many think large language models will finally deliver on the promise of AI replacing human workers. LLMs can be used to write emails and reports, summarize documents, and otherwise do many of the tasks that managers are supposed to do. Other forms of generative AI can create images and videos for advertising or code for software. From Amazon to General Motors to Booz Allen Hamilton, layoffs are being announced and blamed on AI. Amazon said it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs. United Parcel Service (UPS) said it had reduced its management workforce by about 14,000 positions over the past 22 months. And Target said it would cut 1,800 corporate roles. Some academic economists have also chimed in: The St. Louis Federal Reserve found a (weak) correlation between theoretical AI exposure and actual AI adoption in 12 occupational categories. Yet we remain skeptical of the claim that AI is responsible for these layoffs. A recent MIT Media Lab study found that 95% of generative AI pilot business projects were failing. Another survey by Atlassian concluded that 96% of businesses have not seen dramatic improvements in organizational efficiency, innovation, or work quality. Still another study found that 40% of the business people surveyed have received AI slop at work in the last month and that it takes nearly two hours, on average, to fix each instance of slop. In addition, they no longer trust their AI-enabled peers, find them less creative, and find them less intelligent or capable. If AI isnt doing much, its unlikely to be responsible for the layoffs. Some have pointed to the rapid hiring in the tech sector during and after the pandemic when the U.S. Federal Reserve set interest rates near zero, reports the BBCs Danielle Kaye. The resulting hiring set these firms up for eventual workforce reductions, experts saida dynamic separate from the generative AI boom over the last three years, Kaye wrote. Others have pointed to fears that an impending recession may be starting due to higher tariffs, fewer foreign-worker visas, the government shutdown, a backlash against DEI and clean energy spending, ballooning federal government debt, and the presence of federal troops in U.S. cities. For layoffs in the tech sector, a likely culprit is the financial stress that companies are experiencing because of their huge spending on AI infrastructure. Companies that are spending a lot with no significant increases in revenue can try to sustain profitability by cutting costs. Amazon increased its total CapEx from $54 billion in 2023 to $84 billion in 2024, and an estimated $118 billion in 2025. Meta is securing a $27 billion credit line to fund its data centers. Oracle plans to borrow $25 billion annually over the next few years to fulfill its AI contracts. Were running out of simple ways to secure more funding, so cost-cutting will follow, Pratik Ratadiya, head of product at AI startup Narravance, wrote on X. I maintain that companies have overspent on LLMs before establishing a sustainable financial model for these expenses. Weve seen this act before. When companies are financially stressed, a relatively easy solution is to lay off workers and ask those who are not laid off to work harder and be thankful that they still have jobs. AI is just a convenient excuse for this cost-cutting. Last week, when Amazon slashed 14,000 corporate jobs and hinted that more cuts could be coming, a top executive noted the current generation of AI is enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. Shortly thereafter, another Amazon rep anonymously admitted to NBC News that AI is not the reason behind the vast majority of reductions. On an investor call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy admitted that the layoffs were not even really AI driven.” We have been following the slow growth in revenues for generative AI over the last few years, and the revenues are neither big enough to support the number of layoffs attributed to AI, nor to justify the capital expenditures on AI cloud infrastructure. Those expenditures may be approaching $1 trillion for 2025, while AI revenuewhich would be used to pay for the use of AI infrastructure to run the softwarewill not exceed $30 billion this year. Are we to believe that such a small amount of revenue is driving economy-wide layoffs? Investors cant decide whether to cheer or fear these investments. The revenue is minuscule for AI-platform companies like OpenAI that are buyers, but is magnificent for companies like Nvidia that are sellers. Nvidias market capitalization recently topped $5 trillion, while OpenAI admits that it will have $115 billion in cumulative losses by 2029. (Based on Sam Altmans history of overly optimistic predictions, we suspect the losses will be even larger.) The lack of transparency doesnt help. OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI creators are not public companies that are required to release audited figures each quarter. And most Big Tech companies do not separate AI from other revenues. (Microsoft is the only one.) Thus, we are flying in the dark. Meanwhile, college graduates are having trouble finding jobs, and many young people are convinced by the end-of-work narrative that there is no point in preparing for jobs. Ironically, surrendering to this narrative makes them even less employable. The wild exaggerations from LLM promoters certainly help them raise funds for their quixotic quest for artificial general intelligence. But it brings us no closer to that goal, all while diverting valuable physical, financial, and human resources from more promising pursuits.
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E-Commerce
Dole invented a new fruit. The Dole Colada Royale Pineapple is sweet and tangy with notes of coconut and, as the name suggests, pia colada. Unlike its golden yellow counterpart, the Colada Royale has a cream-colored pulp with a green-to-golden shell. It also took more than 15 years to get it just right. The suggested recipes the company released with the new fruit include snacks like a pineapple and coconut carpaccio and a basil-wrapped pineapple with pine zest. Clearly this is meant to be a luxury pineapple experience. The fruit, which is now available in select grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, is 100% non-GMO and naturally bred. The company didn’t share its suggested retail price, but the Colada Royale comes amid a wider trend toward “designer” pineapples. Just last year, Fresh Del Monte released a pink pineapple it called the Pinkglow, which it followed up with a $400 Rubyglow. [Photo: Dole] A new growing process Developing new pineapples requires patience since the natural process can stretch out for nine years or more. “You have to go through thousands of pollinations and develop thousands of seeds and then have the capacity to pinpoint that particular plant that combines what you are looking for,” says Roberto Young, director of pineapple breeding at Doles farm in La Ceiba, Honduras. He led the team that developed the Colada Royale variety. The new pineapple also had be grown in different seasons, since temperature can affect the taste of the finished product. All in all, that means it takes thousands of attempts that go wrong in hopes of getting one that goes right. Dole pineapple breeder Roberto Young [Photo: Dole] “Usually, you have to discard most of the fruit because it could taste very good during the summer, but in the winter you cannot really taste it because it’s too tangy, it’s very acidic,” Young tells Fast Company. Plant breeders consider factors like size, productivity, and color as they’re developing a new product, but taste, of course, is the most important. “It doesn’t help if the fruit is a good size, good productivity, but doesn’t taste like pineapple,” Young says. Dole’s new pineapple had the right taste, but its cream-colored pulp was at first a concern since consumers today are used to yellow pulp in pineapples. At the produce and floral trade show in Anaheim, California, where Dole unveiled the Colada Royale in October, Young says people were hesitant about the fruituntil they tasted it. Then, he says, their reaction was Wow, this is something different. [Photo: Dole] Developing a new market The goal from the beginning was to develop a unique flavor and bring something new to the market. Pineapple is genetically very variable, Young says, and the biggest challenge was consistency. Plant breeding doesn’t have a high success rateIf you are a plant breeder, you might be successful, or you might not,” he concedesand pineapple is especially tricky since it has a relatively long harvest cycle. The process requires first planting parents, which take about a year to produce flowers that can be pollinated. From there, it’s about five more months until the fruit can be harvested. The seeds from that harvest are then planted to get all new plants, repeating the cycle. [Photo: Dole] The results need to be repeatable to ensure the fruit can be mass-produced, so it takes at least three generationsroughly nin yearsto develop a new product. The Colada Royale took longer, and Young, a Honduran native who’s been with Dole for 28 years, has been on the project from the start. He considers it his legacy. “I feel really very, very grateful,” he says. Dole is also looking at the new fruit as a legacy play of its own. The company plans to reinvest a portion of the proceeds of every box of the pineapple sold to create a community center in La Ceiba that will provide healthcare services, language classes, and vocational training. In its most recent earnings report, Dole said its second-quarter 2025 revenue was $2.4 billion, an increase of 14.3% over the same period in 2024. The company is expected to report third-quarter financials on November 10. Designer pineapples may sound like a novelty, but since they can be upsold, fruit growers and grocers alike may find they’re a sweet addition to the produce section.
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E-Commerce
Amid the mass layoffs in tech and retail in the past month, YouTubes CEO Neal Mohan sent out a recent internal memo that hes also looking to lay off employeeswho volunteer. Mohan details how YouTube is undergoing a major AI-focused reorganization and introduces a Voluntary Exit Program with a severance package to eligible YouTube employees. This voluntary exit deal has been couched as an opportunity for employees, but its really just a buyout. Companies have long used this strategy as a way to reduce headcount, usually to avert traditional layoffs. For employees approaching retirement, voluntary severance may be a great opportunity, a wonderful deus ex machina late-career plot twist. But many employees worry that saying no, thank you now may mean an involuntary layoff later on. So how do you decide if you should take a voluntary layoff? Here are four questions to consider. Whats happening in your industry? YouTube has offered its employees a buyout because of AI restructuring. Duke University created a voluntary severance program in April 2025 in response to federal funding cuts. UnitedHealthCare invited an undisclosed number of employees to take part in its Voluntary Resignation Separation Program in early 2025 in response to the financially tumultuous fallout of the murder of its CEO, Brian Thompson, and to a 2024 cyberattack that cost the company $3 billion. In all of these cases, the organizations are offering buyouts because of larger technological, political, and economic forces. The decisions are about more than just whats happening in the organization itselfwhich may indicate that more changes are coming as the industries adapt. But not all buyouts are prompted by larger industry forces. Thats why its important to understand the bigger trends. Then you can better predict whether voluntary layoffs are likely to be the end of your companys reduction in forceor just the beginning. Typically, voluntary buyout packages are more generous than the kinds of severance packages that come with involuntary layoffs. What are your employment prospects? The best-case scenario for a voluntary layoff is either stepping straight into retirement or having a new job already lined up. Then your severance package becomes an unexpected pot of gold in the path you were already walking. Unfortunately, most of us arent that lucky. So if you werent planning on leaving before the buyout was announced, what prospects would you have if you took the voluntary severance? One of the upsides of voluntary layoffs is the opt-in window. Typically, employers offer a window of several weeks to several months to opt-in to voluntary severance, giving you some time to put out feelers for other potential job prospects. This can let you see what the job market is like before you make your decision. Whats in the severance package? While the specific severance package will vary from one organization to another, voluntary layoff programs typically make the buyout a tempting carrot in order to avoid more painful involuntary layoffs later on. Often, these severance packages will give volunteers several weeks or months worth of base pay, depending on the number of years of service. (And depending on which state you live in, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits once the severance pay has run out.) For instance, when Duke University offered voluntary severance earlier this year, it gave volunteers a compensation package equal to one week of severance pay, multiplied by years of service, up to a maximum of 26 weeks. But cash may not be the only benefit in your severance package. Your employer may also offer to pay health insurance benefits for a few months, provide career counseling, or offer financial planning services to help with the transition. What do you want? Learning that your employer is offering voluntary layoffs is stressful, but it doesnt mean the company has all the cards. The organization wants somethinga reduction in forcewhich means you have leverage. Because you can help give that to them, if they give you what you want. So just like when you were hired, figure out what you want and decide what youre willing to compromise to get it. Dont assume the severance package your employer offers is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Start with the severance compensation package. Just because the severance pay offered by the voluntary layoff program is capped at a certain amount doesnt mean you cant ask for more. The company is willing to pay people to quit, so feel free to ask for more money to give them what they want. Similarly, you could ask to be vested in the companys retirement plan if youre not fully there yet or ask to stay on the organizations health insurance until the next calendar year. The worst they can say is no. Deciding what you want to make leaving feel good can make a voluntary layoff a winning proposition for you, rather than an employment catch-22. Lay off me! If youre facing a Voluntary Exit Program or other euphemistically named quit-or-well-start-laying-people-off process, there are four questions you can ask yourself to help determine whether or not you should opt in. First, think about whats going on in your industry as a whole. If there are larger technological, political, or economic forces that are causing structural changes in your organization or in your industry, then it may make sense to take thebuyout, since there may be bigger shakeups on the horizon. From there, think about your employment prospects. Since buyouts typically have a window of several weeks for you to decide whether or not to opt-in, you have some time to determine if you can quickly find another position. Then consider whats in the severance package your company is offering, including the full payment amount and any additional perks that are included. Whats offered and how much is it worth to you? Finally, think about what you want. What would the company have to offer you to make walking away worthwhileand ask for it. Because a voluntary layoff is a negotiation, and you should treat it like one.
Category:
E-Commerce
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