No Company Has Admitted to Replacing Workers With AI in New York

New York state has required companies to disclose if “technological innovation or automation” was the cause of job loss for nearly a year. So far, none has.

Over 160 companies in New York state have filed notices of mass layoffs since last March. None—in a group that includes Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and other employers that are adopting AI tools—attributed their workforce cuts in those filings to “technological innovation or automation.”

That option was added 11 months ago to a required question on paperwork that businesses with 50 or more employees must file with the state to notify of sizable job losses. New York’s Department of Labor told WIRED that, as of the end of January, no employer had marked tech as the reason for their workforce reduction.

Over the past couple of years, many companies have celebrated offloading repetitive tasks such as customer service, sales, and accounting ...