A robotic hand is displayed at the Robot Mall, the world’s first mall equipped with all intelligent robots, on August 13, 2025 in Beijing, China.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Companies are quickly changing their minds that artificial intelligence can “do it all” by rehiring workers to drive their businesses forward, as investors worry about the longevity of the ongoing AI boom in financial markets.
A car manufacturer Ford is one of the latest companies to reverse course. Corner it also reportedly hired hundreds of experienced human engineers to work on quality issues that automated systems could not handle. “Artificial intelligence is a great tool, but it’s only as good as the knowledge you use to train it,” Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of automotive mechanical engineering, told reporters.
Some companies have scaled back their recruiting programs to focus more on employees Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the software giant IBM.
Last year, CBA laid off more than 40 customer service employees and replaced them with an AI voice bot. However, the AI system could not cope with it, which led to an increase in calls, prompting the CBA to postpone the termination of the operation. “Getting the CBA to reverse these job cuts is a huge win,” the Australian financial sector union said in a statement.
According to an ABC report in August last year, the CBA admitted it “did not take into account all aspects of the business” when announcing the redundancies and admitted “we should have been more careful in our assessment of the required roles”.
Similarly, IBM replaced its HR functions with AI that handled about 94% of common requests but could not meet the other 6%, which included ethical issues. IBM then announced plans to triple its entry-level employment in the US across all business units by 2026.
“If we don’t continue to invest in entry-level hiring, what happens in 3-5 years?,” said IBM CEO Nickle LaMoreaux at the Charter AI conference in New York. “There’s no pipe; the well just runs dry,” added LaMoreaux.
These examples echo the views presented by analysts that making employees redundant while implementing more AI may not necessarily provide the best way for business growth.
“Budgeting on ‘replacement technology’ without investing in training or upskilling has left teams ill-prepared to use AI,” according to a report by Intuition Labs. “Especially, among companies pushing automation, many later ‘regretted’ layoffs, cutting the very people needed to oversee AI,” it added.
According to an Orgvue report, 39% of business leaders are making employees redundant due to the deployment of AI. However, among that number, 55% agreed that wrong decisions regarding layoffs were made.
“When the results of AI are inconsistent, inaccurate, or difficult to use, companies often need to renew human supervision,” said Jessica Zhang, senior vice president of APAC at the HR solutions provider. ADP. “This can lead to duplicated efforts, slow decision-making, and reduced productivity gains,” added Zhang.
Meanwhile, 32% of US hiring managers said they eliminated a role because of AI and were later rehired in the same or similar position, according to data from Robert Half posted on CNBC.
“AI is changing the workplace, but it’s clear that organizations are finding more value in building human interactions with AI versus replacing human work entirely,” notes Capitol Technology University.
