Artificial intelligence is already proving to be a disruption to the workplace, with the scope depending on your industry, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes that some of the damage isn’t entirely the fault of AI firms. He raised his belief that so-called “AI washing,” where AI is being falsely blamed for layoffs in some businesses, is being used as an excuse to reduce headcounts.
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In an interview with CNBC at the India AI Impact Summit this week (h/t Fortune), Altman explained that “I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there’s some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, and then there’s some real displacement by AI of different kinds of jobs.”
Altman isn’t oblivious to the impact that AI is having, however, but (as you might expect) he’s a little more optimistic about the end result. “We’ll find new kinds of jobs, as we do with every tech revolution,” Altman went on to say, believing that “[he] would expect that the real impact of AI doing jobs in the next few years will begin to be palpable.”
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His comments follow a recent National Bureau of Economic Research survey of executives that showed that, far from being ready to boost productivity for businesses, 80% of the executives queried found that AI wasn’t having any impact on productivity or, indeed, on employment numbers. That’s despite the warning calls from others in the AI space, including from Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman, who believes AI will be ready to replace white-collar jobs within 18 months.
As for AI washing, the data seems to support Altman’s view. A recent Yale Budget Lab report, using population survey data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggests that there hasn’t been a significant change in occupation changes or in the average length of unemployment from ChatGPT’s release up until November 25. If businesses are scrapping jobs because of AI, this data appears to suggest that it isn’t happening on a grand scale just yet.
A lot of money is resting on AI’s success; however, with over $258 million of global venture capital invested in 2025 in the technology, and with businesses investing in AI needing to justify that investment. Regardless, Altman’s comments are unlikely to offer much relief for those employed in the roles at most risk from AI, with uncertain waters ahead.
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