Sam Altman warns some companies are 'AI washing' layoffs

OpenAI CEO warns of "AI washing" in layoffs

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says some companies are engaging in "AI washing" by falsely blaming workforce reductions on artificial intelligence. He made the comments at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday.

"There’s some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do," Altman told CNBC-TV18. He clarified that he also expects real job displacement from AI, alongside the creation of new roles.

The confusing data on AI and jobs

The current data on AI's labor market impact is mixed and inconclusive. A National Bureau of Economic Research study this month found nearly 90% of surveyed executives said AI had no impact on employment over the past three years.

Yet, prominent tech leaders have issued stark warnings. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level office jobs.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said this week his firm would reduce its workforce by one-third by 2030, partly due to AI acceleration. The 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report found around 40% of employers expect to cut staff because of AI.

No major macroeconomic effects yet

Recent analysis suggests the predicted mass displacement is not yet happening. A Yale Budget Lab report using Bureau of Labor Statistics data found no significant changes in occupations or unemployment length for jobs with high AI exposure through November 2025.

"No matter which way you look at the data, at this exact moment, it just doesn’t seem like there’s major macroeconomic effects here," said Martha Gimbel, the lab's executive director.

Gimbel attributed "AI washing" to companies blaming the technology for diminished margins caused by other factors, like cautious consumers. WebAI CEO David Stout wrote that tech founders face pressure to justify huge AI investments, leading them to create narratives of economic disruption.

A familiar pattern from the PC era

This waiting period mirrors the 1980s IT boom, according to Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok. He noted economist Robert Solow observed few productivity gains early in the PC age, despite predictions of a surge.

"AI is everywhere except in the incoming macroeconomic data," Slok wrote last week. He suggested the impact could follow a J-curve: an initial slowdown obscured by heavy spending, followed by an exponential surge in productivity.

Key warnings from tech leaders include:

• Anthropic's Dario Amodei predicting 50% of entry-level office jobs could be wiped out.
• Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski planning a one-third workforce reduction by 2030, citing AI.
• The World Economic Forum reporting 40% of employers expect AI-driven staff cuts.

Signs of a potential transition

Some economists see early signs of change. Stanford's Erik Brynjolfsson noted a decoupling in recent data: job gains were revised down to just 181,000 despite strong GDP growth of 3.7%.

His analysis showed a 2.7% year-over-year productivity jump last year, which he attributes to AI benefits "beginning to peek through." He published a study last year showing a 13% relative employment decline for early-career workers in AI-exposed jobs.

"The updated 2025 U.S. data suggests we are now transitioning out of this investment phase into a harvest phase," Brynjolfsson wrote, "where those earlier efforts begin to manifest as measurable output."

Altman anticipates this shift, stating the real impact of AI on jobs will "begin to be palpable" in the next few years, even as new kinds of jobs emerge.