Concerns about how AI will affect workers continue to rise in lockstep with the pace of advancements and new products promising automation and efficiency.
Evidence suggests that fear is warranted.
A November MIT study found an estimated 11.7% of jobs could already be automated using AI. Surveys have shown employers are already eliminating entry-level jobs because of the technology. Companies are also already pointing to AI as the reason for layoffs.
As enterprises more meaningfully adopt AI, some may take a closer look at how many employees they really need.
In a recent TechCrunch survey, multiple enterprise VCs said AI will have a big impact on the enterprise workforce in 2026. This was particularly interesting because the survey didn’t specifically ask about it.
Eric Bahn, a co-founder and general partner at Hustle Fund, expects to see affects on labor in 2026. He’s just not sure exactly what that will look like.
“I want to see what roles that have been known for more repetition get automated, or even more complicated roles with more logic become more automated,” Bahn said. “Is it going to lead to more layoffs? Is there going to be higher productivity? Or will AI just be an augmentation for the existing labor market to be even more productive in the future? All of this seems pretty unanswered, but it seems like something big is going to happen in 2026.”
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Marell Evans, founder and managing partner at Exceptional Capital, predicted companies looking to increase AI spending, will pull money from their pool for labor and hiring.
“I think on the flip side of seeing an incremental increase in AI budgets, we’ll see more human labor get cut and layoffs will continue to aggressively impact the U.S. employment rate,” Evans said.
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