As artificial intelligence (AI) penetrates deeper into U.S. businesses, a topic has sparked intense debate: Will AI, as pessimists fear, replace jobs on a large scale, or will it, as optimists hope, free employees to engage in more valuable work? Some early signs indicate that the concerns are not unwarranted. By Thursday afternoon alone, at least three publicly traded companies had announced large-scale layoff plans in response to changes in the workplace ecosystem.
