#153 Labour pains - How AI is reshaping the workforce

Is AI going to take all our jobs? This week we dig into this question, starting with a report from Anthropic released this year that cuts against the prevailing panic.

We identify some deeper and more nuanced impacts of AI on the labour force beyond the possibility of jobs disappearing - including the re-design of roles, the loss of insight that comes when we handover "mundane" work to AI, and the impact of AI on the next generation of workforce leaders.

We also explore the vested interests that exist to promote the narrative around mass workforce displacement.

Links

Anthropic research: Labor market impacts of AI https://www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts?highlight=2026

Article about "AI washing" (Fortune) https://fortune.com/2026/02/10/ai-washing-and-forever-layoffs-why-companies-keep-cutting-jobs-even-a...

Anthropic CEO's dramatic labour force prediction (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/kolawolesamueladebayo/2026/02/21/dario-amodei-doubled-down-on-his-ai-jo...

Goldman Sachs AI labour force prediction https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/how-will-ai-affect-the-us-labor-market

Research on AI and labour market (HBR) https://hbr.org/2026/03/research-how-ai-is-changing-the-labor-market

Oped about Atlassian's job cuts (AFR) https://www.afr.com/technology/the-ai-lesson-atlassian-s-cannon-brookes-doesn-t-want-to-hear-2026031...

Global tech layoff numbers (RationalFX) https://www.rationalfx.com/forex-brokers/tech-industry-layoffs/

Blog on how history suggests AI-driven change isn't coming as fast as you think (Aaron Benanav) https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/is-the-ai-bubble-about-to-burst

Australia's National AI Plan https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan

Credits

Editing and post-production by Martin Franklin (East Coast Studio) www.eastcoaststudio.com.au