You’ve just been laid off because of AI — here’s what to do next

AI-driven layoffs have become a dominant theme of 2025 as thousands of workers find themselves out of a job whilst companies go all-in on artificial intelligence.

In October, tech giant Amazon let go of 14,000 corporate employees citing investments in its biggest bets including AI. In September, Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff revealed the company had laid off 4,000 customer support roles, saying that AI can do 50% of the company’s work.

Several companies across the U.S. and Europe have announced similar plans to become leaner and more efficient with AI from Accenture and Lufthansa to Klarna.

The U.S. faced the highest level of layoffs in any October since 2003, with job cuts totaling 153,074, up 183% from September and 175% higher than the same month a year ago, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It has been the worst year for announced layoffs since 2009.

In this bleak economic environment, professionals who have lost their jobs as a result of AI are likely pondering what their next career move should be; whether to transition into a new industry or profession, or how to beef up their arsenal of skills.

Fabian Stephany, assistant professor of AI and work at the Oxford Internet Institute, stressed how important it is to remain “skeptical and investigate,” because some companies are using AI as a scapegoat for layoffs.

“Is this really due to AI? Even though the company says it’s about automation and AI… it might be about mishiring in the past, it might be about [the] economic downturn, all sorts of things, and the advice on what people should do next strongly depends on whether it’s really about automation or whether it’s really about something else,” Stephany told CNBC Make It in an interview.

If the layoffs are not truly about automation, the simple solution is finding the same or similar position at a different company, according to Stephany. For example, if you’re a software developer, there’s still high demand for those jobs in other firms.

However, if your role is slowly becoming obsolete due to AI, then it’s time to start thinking about upskilling.

Glassdoor’s Chief Economist Daniel Zhao told CNBC Make It that “upskilling can be a good way to move into a more promising career path.”

He said whether you’ve been laid off due to AI or other reasons, it’s important to reflect on the wide range of skillsets you may already have that can help you stand out.

Stephany referred to this as the “bundle of skills” that any professional would have because skills never come in “isolation.”

For example, if you’re a software developer with technical skills such as programming languages and debugging, you may also have some management and communication skills.

Learning something about arts and crafts or a foreign lanague might be far away from your skill set, he said. “However, learning statistical skills, for example, is not so far away because technically speaking, it’s adjacent to the skill bundle that you have.”

Looking at the “map of skills” that you own can help you make realistic choices about your future career path and have opportunities be accessible to you, without having to inveset tremendous effort and money such as getting another degree.

AI literacy is becoming a must-have skill as most professionals and recruiters are increasingly favoring workers who are ahead of the curve with AI.

In fact, LinkedIn’s Skills on the Rise report earlier this year found that AI literacy ranked top for the most popular skill that people are adding to their profiles, as well as how often the category shows up amongst those getting hired.

“Just like typing or computer literacy have become universal expectations for many jobs, AI literacy is likely to become a baseline requirement for jobs in the future,” Zhao said.

He added that those “who can experiment with AI and figure out how to apply It,” will be more valuable to businesses.

Stephany agreed saying that in his research, he found that showing AI skills signals you’re “running with the technology” and that you’re “ahead of the wave,” which is favorable to employers.

These skills could range from being able to write prompts to chatbots, debugging code or knowing how to use copilot.

He added that similar to tapping into your adjacent skillsets, it’s important to develop AI skills that are complementary to your existing expertise.

For example, if you work in business operations, there’s little benefit to learning how to become a programmer because it would require more money and effort.

However, there’s always a “close by AI application,” he said. In a business operation environment, it would be learning how to effectively communicate with AI and prompting the best responses.

There are also certain soft skills that AI cannot do – it might be great at debugging code but it can’t effectively manage a team.

“That might be a skill that’s actually adjacent to you, because maybe you know the software developer, you want to step up the game and not only do the coding, but also you manage people who are engaged with technology. That’s one thing: going for these complementary skills,” Stephany added.