May 2025 - Astute Financial

The latest annual survey by organisational design and planning software platform Orgvue, based on feedback from 1,000 C-suite executives and senior decision makers at medium and large organisations, shows that 39 percent of leaders made redundancies after introducing AI. Of these, 55 percent acknowledged mistakes in their redundancy choices and are now admitting those redundancy decisions were wrong.

Consequences of the AI-induced redundancies include widespread internal confusion, leading to employees quitting and a drop in productivity – the exact opposite of what businesses had initially hoped for with the deployment of artificial intelligence.

Having seen how it’s played out, businesses are now less likely to believe that AI will replace human workers after all.

The report uncovers huge amounts of uncertainty over AI’s impacts on the workforce, with 38% of leaders still don’t understand AI’s impact on the businesses, with 25% unsure which roles are most at risk from AI.

Despite only 48% of managers expecting AI will replace some workers compared with 54% last year, leaders reportedly feel less responsible in protecting their workforce from redundancies.

Oliver Shaw, CEO of Orgvue, said that businesses are “learning the hard way” that replacing people with AI can go “badly wrong”.

“We’re facing the worst global skills shortage in a generation and dismissing employees without a clear plan for workforce transformation is reckless,” he said. “Some leaders are waking up to the fact that partnership between people and machines requires an intentional upskilling program if they’re to see the productivity gains that AI promises.”

Despite challenges, AI continues to be a major driver of workforce transformation. Seventy-two percent of business leaders believe AI will remain the dominant force shaping their organisations over the next three years, a slight increase from 2024. Investment in AI remains strong, with four in five businesses that invested in AI last year planning to increase their investment in 2025.

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Mike

16:04 13 Mar 23

Highly recommended! Josh and Sarah have been fantastic at Astute. They've found and placed me in 2 jobs now between them, both really responsive and excellent at keeping you up to speed with things. Very knowledgable about the roles and happy to talk to companies with any queries you have.

C R.

10:45 27 Jan 23

Great agency one of the best ones I've worked with! Liz has been a great help and support in helping me towards a new direction in my career life. She is very attentive and keeps me in the loop at all times! She makes the extra effort to work with my preferred requirements for work and even if it isn't completely attainable she meets me in the middle and does as much as she can to help! Also Liz is very funny might I add 😂 and I'm happy that I can now put a face to the name after all these years! Thank you again Liz for all your help and support! 😊

Christine

10:32 20 Dec 22

Josh and the Astute team was very swift to help me to find roles that matched my profile. They are really reliable and will help through every step of the recruitment process going out of their way to assist and follow up when needed. Could not find a better recruitment agency!

Helen Pinegar

16:19 18 Dec 22

Fantastic recruitment agency.. Josh was extremely enthusiastic, encouraging and clearly knowledgeable about what was needed from both the employee and the employers point of view. Extremely supportive especially in regards to interview preparation and endeavoured to procure feedback promptly. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Astute in the future to both candidates and recruiting businesses particularly for the right fit for the role!!!

Lisa Leigh

11:56 30 Nov 22

I have worked as a candidate for Astute and they have been excellent. Super friendly service and professional agents keen to fit the right person to the right job. It has been a pleasure dealing with them and I would happily work for them again in the future. Highly recommend this agency.