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As AI continues to weave its way into every corner of daily life, one of the public\u2019s chief fears is what it will mean in the workplace.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not irrational to worry. Many name-brand big tech companies have already sacked thousands of workers in favor of the technology, from Meta<\/a> to Square<\/a> \u2014 a trend that sets up a natural experiment: are these AI layoffs actually resulting in positive business outcomes?<\/p>\n That\u2019s why a new study from Gartner immediately caught our eye. As Fortune reports<\/a>, the research and advisory firm surveyed 350 global business executives whose companies are pulling in at least $1 billion annually to investigate whether all these AI layoffs are paying off in the real world. <\/p>\n The first takeaway is that the trend is real, with a total of 80 percent admitted to trimming their human staff to make investments in AI or autonomous technology. But they say they had no idea if AI would actually generate any benefits \u2014 they were simply buying into the promise of automation via AI.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where things get interesting. The Gartner survey found that execs who slashed staff to invest in AI have seen the same financial gains as those who held onto their employees. In othe words, attempting to replace workers with AI isn\u2019t showing any detectable returns for these companies. And to make matters worse, many of these businesses specifically reduced their headcount to free up the cash needed for AI technology<\/a>, meaning they sacrificed valuable institutional knowledge and employee goodwill for nothing.<\/p>\n The findings aren\u2019t entirely surprising. An MIT study last year<\/a> found that AI is failing to generate meaningful revenue growth at the vast majority of companies that embrace it.<\/p>\n Still, not everyone believes that all investment in AI is destined to backfire. Gartner analyst Helen Poitevin told Fortune that these seemingly drastic moves by execs may simply be attempts to trial AI, not to structurally reset the whole company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to us to be a kind of one-time exercise by many in small amounts, but not what translates to getting full ROI from their AI investment,\u201d Poitevin told Fortune.<\/p>\n So which companies are seeing an actual bump from AI?<\/p>\n The Gartner survey found that companies leveraging AI as a form of \u201cpeople amplification\u201d \u2014 meaning they give their employees AI tools to boost efficiency, instead of replacing them outright \u2014 are seeing the most significant gains. Even that strategy is fraught, though: previous research has suggested that the majority of employees aren\u2019t keen on using AI just yet, with one survey revealing 54 percent avoid using in-house AI tools<\/a> altogether.<\/p>\n