The word “AI” keeps popping up in layoff memos across corporate America this year.
Retrieved and analyzed by Business Insider 15 termination memos from companies From Jack Dorsey’s fintech block to Meta to Disney Identify the most commonly used terms in 2026, excluding filler words. I have illustrated these words below and indicated how often they are mentioned in their size and order.
“AI” was mentioned most often at 46, followed by “customer” and “build.”
Business Insider obtained and analyzed 15 layoff memos starting in 2026, including those from Meta and Disney. business insider
This analysis shows how executives are using language that conveys productivity, speed, and an AI-driven future when explaining layoffs to employees and the public.
Block CEO Jack Dorsey, for example, cut his company’s workforce by almost half in February. He said “intelligence” tools were rapidly accelerating and combined with “smaller, flatter” teams as more than 4,000 roles were cut.
“AI is the word most commonly used in these memos because most organizations are investing heavily in AI, or the promise of AI, as humanity’s first capital replacement for cognitive labor,” Peter Vanko, CEO of healthcare system Baystate Health and author of The Necessary Goodbye, a book about dealing with layoffs, told Business Insider.
Workers are feeling the impact of AI
AI is a major disruptor in the corporate world. It’s transforming workflows across industries. Coupled with macroeconomic challenges such as weak consumer spending and geopolitical instability, executives are being forced to rethink their business models. That’s where the words “build” or “build” come in, Vanko says.
“This is not the time to rethink and reinvent,” Vanko said. “Now is the time to build anew.”
There is new territory to cover; He said companies are reducing headcount and investing in AI to meet their goals. If they want to spend millions of dollars on Anthropic or OpenAI, that money has to come from somewhere.
For example, Meta told employees in a May memo that the 8,000 job cuts were to offset “other investments.”
Josh Bersin, a human resources analyst and consultant, isn’t convinced that AI is as big a factor as companies are telling employees it is.
Citing AI as the reason for the layoffs is a “positive statement to investors and customers that the company is becoming more efficient,” Bersin told Business Insider. “The reality is that in most cases, companies were overhiring.”
We are entering a new world of intentional hiring and deliberate productivity, Bersin said.. This is a change from the mass adoption seen across the tech industry during the coronavirus pandemic, for example, when demand for digital services soared. AI is an “excuse” for companies to reduce headcount in unproductive departments, and those numbers are likely to remain, even with AI tools at their disposal, Bersin said.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman said in February that some companies are systematically cutting jobs through “AI cleaning.” Of course, Altman’s company offers AI tools that could disrupt employment, but he said those affected will adapt and find new ways to work.
Businesses want to be faster
A common theme of speed in the notes also struck Vanco. Terms like “faster,” “pace,” and “acceleration” have cropped up frequently as companies tout efficiency as a priority. Being faster isn’t a bad thing, he said, but it’s not necessarily the best way for an organization to “really win.”
Scrutinizing the terminology and filler words in these memos, Banko said companies are talking about the structural challenges they will face in 2026. These include consumerism, rising labor and supply chain costs, global volatility, and policy shifts.
The memo hints at a future in which companies are built to do more work with fewer people.