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! 
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.