Humans vs. Robots
The Great AI Layoff Experiment Isn't Going as Planned
Companies were told AI was coming for white-collar jobs. So they cut people, “implemented” AI, and waited for the machines to take over. There was just one problem: the infrastructure—and the agents—weren’t actually ready.
In this episode of Old Fashioned Marketing, we dig into what happened after companies started betting on AI-driven headcount reduction, why some of the biggest AI companies are still aggressively hiring humans, and what the future of work may actually look like. The real question isn’t whether humans or AI win. It’s where humans still create value when agents can execute more of the work.
We get into why simply “doing what your boss asks” is becoming a dangerous place to sit, what happens when one employee can oversee 8, 10, or 25 agents, and why judgment, business context, taste, and decision-making may become some of the most important skills employees have. We also debate how much we should believe the public narratives coming from AI CEOs.
Are they really walking back predictions about massive job displacement—or has the PR strategy changed now that people are getting nervous? And for marketers, there’s an even bigger question: if AI can execute more of the work, how many people does a modern marketing team actually need?
There’s a reckoning coming.
