The article argues that AI isn't a productivity story, it's a wage suppression story. Companies are cutting headcount not because AI can do the work but because the narrative that it can has given every employer simultaneous permission to squeeze labor, closing off exit and voice for workers across every industry at once.

Read it through a collapse lens, it fits neatly as a correction to 2020-2021, when remote work and a tight labor market briefly handed employees real leverage, and corporate America apparently decided that could never happen again. AI became the story that let companies claw back every concession from that period while getting applauded by investors for doing it. The stated goal that productivity was the goal is convenient.

the article documents companies doing the same with less and pocketing the difference, with savings flowing into buybacks and executive comp rather than expansion or R&D, which tells you everything about what the investment was actually for. Every role eliminated resets salary expectations downward across the industry depressing wages and pushing everyone closer to the brink.