AI: bewilderment and trepidation

Three years after the sudden appearance of generative artificial intelligence (AI), fears of being replaced are fading, especially as various major groups are taking action and embracing this transformation.

by Antoine Boitez

THE NEWS CAME like a bolt from the blue. In January 2026, the US e-commerce giant Amazon announced it was cutting 16,000 jobs worldwide in order to “step up its AI efforts”. In a memo to the staff, Beth Galetti, Vice-President of Human Resources and Technology, spoke of the need to “slim down the system, improve accountability and cut red tape”. Behind all this management-speak, a similar trend is emerging almost everywhere: the streamlining of organisations. This mainly affects middle management roles, which often involve specialist business expertise. In both the US and Europe, AI is not a technological revolution so much as the reshaping of intellectual work: a process that has been going on for several years.

Where knowledge is widely dispersed, AI serves as a support tool.

JOBS IN AI

In Europe, IBM has announced that it will be axing 10% of its workforce in France, i.e. nearly 300 employees. Once again, the stated objective remains unchanged: to cut costs and boost productivity. For the American group, this means refocusing resources on commercial or technical roles at the expense of analytical, coordination or supervisory functions. Here AI acts as a lever for standardisation, capable of taking on tasks previously assigned to specific experts.

What is now fuelling concerns more than job losses is the decline of the expert’s role. This trend extends far beyond the United States. In Europe, there is still considerable fear that artificial intelligence will replace workers, even though the actual impact varies from country to country. According to the EY first European AI Barometer, over two-thirds of European employees are worried about job losses due to AI.

Yet a paradox emerges: the professional use of these technologies is still limited. Only 12% of employees surveyed said they use AI in their daily work, compared with 38% in their personal lives. In other words, AI is already transforming organisations even before becoming an established tool in the workplace.

This anxiety varies significantly, depending on the production model. In Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, fewer than 60% of employees fear losing their jobs to AI, whereas this figure is more than 75% in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

A telling discrepancy: more than the technology itself, the factors determining whether expertise survives within a company are the structure of jobs, the qualification level and investment in training. Where knowledge is widely dispersed, well-documented and valued, AI serves as a support tool. Where expertise relies on weakened intermediate functions, it becomes an adjustment variable.