AI slop incoming…but it conveys the point pretty well, in my opinion.
For the past few years, a powerful narrative has been circulating through boardrooms, tech conferences, and headlines:
“AI is coming for your job.”
It’s an idea pushed by AI boosters, corporate leaders, and echoed by media outlets hungry for clicks. But if you’re actually in the trenches of software development, engineering, design, or any kind of creative work, you’ve probably noticed something strange: it doesn’t add up.
AI can automate some tasks, sure. It can generate boilerplate code, summarize data, or draft text. But replacing a human being with creativity, adaptability, and contextual reasoning? That’s not happening.
So why do corporations keep insisting it will?
Let’s unpack the real story behind the “AI replacement” myth, and why it’s one of the most effective corporate tools of control in modern history.
Companies love to talk about “AI-driven efficiency.” It sounds futuristic, innovative, and it conveniently hides what’s really happening: cost-cutting disguised as progress.
Executives know that AI isn’t capable of replacing entire teams, but it’s an incredibly useful excuse to:
By framing these decisions as “technological inevitability,” corporations shift the focus away from greed and poor leadership and make it sound like the future’s fault.
The “AI will take your job” story is psychological leverage.
When workers fear obsolescence:
It’s not just about automation, it’s about obedience. Fear keeps people compliant, dependent, and distracted from asking deeper questions about ownership, equity, and direction.
For the executive and investor class, AI isn’t primarily a technology - it’s a story.
A good story drives stock prices, funding rounds, and “innovation” headlines.
That’s why every major tech layoff in recent years has been followed by an announcement of an “AI pivot.” It reassures investors that “we’re cutting staff now to fund the future.”
But look closer, and the pattern is clear:
The AI gold rush isn’t about building smarter tools. It’s about extracting more value from fewer people.
Ironically, the roles most easily automated by AI are not the ones being threatened.
Most executive tasks such as analyzing reports, drafting memos, and reviewing metrics are perfectly automatable.
Yet the narrative never focuses on replacing CEOs or board members. Why? Because they control the narrative.
It’s much more convenient to frame the threat as something that affects everyone but them.
“AI will replace the workforce” is a safer story than “AI will expose which executives add no real value.”
By turning AI into a “humans vs. machines” debate, corporations distract from the real issue:
Who controls the technology, and who benefits from it?
Instead of uniting to demand transparency and ethical governance, workers argue about whose job is next on the chopping block. Meanwhile, the same few corporations consolidate power over the AI tools everyone else depends on.
It’s the oldest trick in the book: divide the workforce, concentrate the wealth.
The truth is far less apocalyptic and far more empowering: AI won’t replace people. People using AI will replace those who don’t.
The best developers, designers, and engineers are already treating AI as an amplifier, not a replacement. It speeds up boilerplate work, handles rote patterns, and leaves humans free to focus on design, reasoning, and creative synthesis.
The future isn’t about disappearing jobs, it’s about evolving skills (like it has always been). Those who learn to direct AI, not just use it, will lead the next generation of human-centered innovation.
The “AI will replace everyone” myth is not a prediction. It’s a strategy. It keeps workers fearful, investors euphoric, and executives untouchable, all while technology itself remains misunderstood and misused.
But if we reclaim the narrative, if we remember that AI is a tool, not a threat, we can build a future where augmentation replaces exploitation, and human creativity remains the engine of progress.
AI isn’t coming for your job. People using AI to manipulate markets and narratives might be, but that’s a very different kind of intelligence.
I get the sentiment behind “AI isn’t coming for your job,” but let’s be real…it’s not that simple. Companies will absolutely cut workers and blame “AI automation,” even when it’s more about trimming costs than improving efficiency. It’s already happening. The first thing I see every morning? Yet another headline: “BiG tEcH cOmPaNy lAyS oFf 30,000 wHiTe-CoLlAr wOrKeRs.” The satire practically writes itself.
Because sure — as long as profits look good this quarter, who cares what happens next? Here’s the catch, though: if everyone’s getting laid off, who’s supposed to keep the economy running? No jobs, no income, no customers. It’s capitalism eating its own tail, and somehow pretending it’s innovation.
But hey…as long as billionaires can fund their third yacht, the illusion of success lives on. I miss the days when AI used to be an exciting thing to think about. Free up all the boring, tedious stuff and allow me to focus on things that I thought were more important? Help accelerate humanity in some way? Yes, please, sign me up. It still holds true for the most part. I use it every day in my professional life, or rather forced to use it. It definitely has its uses, but I can’t get over the fact that it seems like it’s more of a wrecking ball to the labor market.