** Hello everyone, I am Old V. A very unprofessional AI non-geek. **
There is a hot topic on Zhihu, asking whether the release of GPT5 means that programmers will be replaced. I am not a programmer, and I am worried that I will be replaced by AI in the near future. After all, I still have two sons to raise (crying face)
But it’s no use just worrying. We also have to face the challenge, right? This is just like the lay-off of our fathers. The only difference is that we are at the age of our fathers.
Grok has a task feature that I let at 7 a.m. every morning help me network the top news of the past 24 hours in the global AI world. Today, this news instantly reminded me of the question Zhihu.
AI Drives Over 10,000 U.S. Job Cuts in 2025
Key Point: Generative AI adoption leads to significant workforce reductions.
Summary: In the first seven months of 2025, private employers announced over 806,000 job cuts, with AI accounting for more than 10,000, reflecting a shift toward automation amid economic pressures.
That sounds scary. But it only had one headline, so I did a little more search research. The results are still quite worth thinking about
This news actually comes from the latest reports from Challenger, Gray & Christmas and other organizations. From January to July 2025, U.S. employers announced a total of 806,383 layoffs, an increase of 75% over the same period in 2024 and has exceeded the total for the whole year of 2024. Among them, 10,375 were explicitly attributed to artificial intelligence (AI), and it is clear that under the economic pressure of inflation, tariffs and market uncertainty, companies are accelerating the adoption of generative AI to automate processes and improve efficiency. According to the research report, broader “technology upgrades”(including AI and automation) have caused 20,219 people to lose their jobs during the year. In July alone, there were 10,300 AI-related layoffs in a single month, showing a sharp increase.
So I researched it again, ##Which industries have been hardest hit?
| industry | Number of layoffs in the first half of 2025 | Is AI the main factor | remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| retail | 79,900 | low | Affected by economic factors such as tariffs; partial automation has occurred in aspects such as inventory management. |
| technology | 76,200 | high | More than 27,000 technology jobs have disappeared due to AI since 2023; Microsoft (15,000 people) and Intel (15% layoffs) have both explicitly mentioned the efficiency improvements brought by AI. |
| service industry | 48,700 | medium | Consulting companies such as McKinsey are using AI to replace primary tasks. |
| consumer goods | 31,400 | low | There is no significant AI impact. |
| medical/medicine | 30,100 | medium | AI diagnostics and administrative automation are beginning to replace some employees. |
| financial | 25,800 | high | Automation of data processing and customer service. |
| warehousing logistics | 24,400 | low | Although there are robots/automation, they are not generative AI. |
| non-profit | 16,900 | low | The impact is minimal. |
| telecom | 14,900 | medium | Apply AI in network optimization and support. |
| It can be seen that technology and finance are the hardest hit areas. The impact of the service industry (mainly corporate services) must not be underestimated. Because you see, the medical and telecommunications industries are mainly affected by service provision, especially junior service positions |
##So in the United States, which states have received the most impact?
The research report shows that AI layoffs are concentrated in the technology field, with California (Silicon Valley), Washington State (Seattle), and New York (financial technology) bearing the brunt. Eastern, western, and southern states where financial and technology companies gather, such as New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, etc. On the contrary, central regions, such as Ohio, are least affected because they are an industrial state.
For us, it is more important to understand whether our position will be replaced.
##Which positions are easier to replace?
The research report states that AI has the greatest impact on entry-level and mid-level positions, which often include tasks such as automated data entry, basic analysis, and routine reporting:
** Entry-level **: The number of jobs dropped by 15% year-on-year, and the frequency of AI mentioned in job announcements soared by 400% in two years. The unemployment rate for recent graduates is about 6%(a national average of 4%), and nearly half of Gen Z believe that AI devalues their degrees.
** Mid-level **: It has also been severely damaged. About 40% of IT positions are facing transformation, and scalable tasks such as market analysts and sales managers have been taken over by AI.
** Senior level/senior level **: Affected by the least, strategic decisions still rely on manual work. However, if grassroots recruitment continues to stagnate, talent echelon gaps may occur in the long run.
##The thoughts that follow This will certainly not happen only in the United States. I also found another piece of news:
TikTok's Berlin team is replaced by AI and external providers, sparking controversy over automation's role in handling sensitive content and employment impacts.
Humanity will always be pushed forward by the times or crushed. Not just programmers, all of us should be crisis aware. Maybe not now, but when that day comes, we should be ready. Maybe we are not the scientists who study AI, nor the engineers who create AI models. But embracing AI, letting it help us with small things in life and work, and expanding our knowledge structure is something we can do now.
** I am Lao V, a very unprofessional creator in the AI field. Want to learn more about AI technology trends? Welcome to follow my blog “AI Bu Know” to get the latest AI information and superficial analysis! Blog link: blog.vftl.top or https://blog.vftl.site **