For hard-hit tech workers, AI is a silver lining

“AI is going to help us. It’s going to assist us in growing and becoming more effective and efficient,” said Kamran, who lives in Connecticut. “It’s going to supercharge our lives.”

Others are following Kamran’s lead. Trailhead expanded its AI curriculum last year to include 43 “badges” that are earned by completing courses. So far, users have tallied more than 1.1 million awards, said Ann Weeby, senior vice president of Trailhead.

“We’re seeing employees from every level, in every type of business ... jump in and start learning, because they want to apply generative AI to their business yesterday,” Weeby said.

For their part, many universities are pivoting to incorporate AI in courses on computer science and other disciplines.

“It’s not a death knell,” said Charles Lee Isbell Jr., who studied at MIT’s AI Lab and recently became provost at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Isbell is pushing for classroom emphasis on AI data-driven simulations and so-called deep learning, which uses multiple layers of what are called “artificial neural networks” — complex algorithms designed to mimic the human brain to generate new data.

“Coding and programming aren’t going away,” he said.

Tech layoffs have slowed from last year’s frenetic pace, but they remain substantial. More than 28,000 job cuts by tech firms nationwide were announced in the first two months of this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and research firm.

Only a few hundred of those layoffs were explicitly attributed to AI, but thousands more cuts in tech and other industries were said to be the result of “updating or incorporating new technology,” Challenger said. It noted that some of that may be companies overhauling budgets and staffing to make room for AI work.

Although AI may not be directly responsible for most of the tech sector’s job cuts, companies are realizing that greater utilization could mean they don’t have to rehire for some positions, or that they can transition parts of those jobs over to the new technology, said Longnion of See & Free Consulting.

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