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The AI Layoffs Story Is Wrong. Here's What's Really Happening. · GTM Made Simple

• 0:00
  So what's interesting is that PwC analyzed over 1 billion job postings, and it seems to
• 0:06
  conclude companies that are hiring are outgrowing the companies that are cutting jobs. And that
• 0:12
  might feel like news to you, but I have some data to back it up, and also some insights that might
• 0:17
  actually really help you land your next big gig or how you should think about it. If you're a CEO
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  or hiring leader, 52% of the headcount growth has been observed in that data over
• 0:28
  36%. So the growth is obviously there. And that's not my opinion. That's literally by PwC analyzing
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  over a billion job postings. So you might say, which I was questioning, which is why I dug into
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  this is like, well, why is everybody panicking about layoffs? What's with that? What about all the
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  headlines around layoffs that I'm seeing every single day? So let me just dig into this data with
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  you because this is fascinating. So some of the facts, 97,000 layoffs were happening in May and
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  something similar in June. And 40% of the companies and 40% of the folks blamed on AI.
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  Oracle just got over 21,000 people. GitLab like 350. Rackspace 750. There's been just data
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  over layer of this thing everywhere. Right. Sounds like AI is truly destroying the job market, right?
• 1:16
  You are wrong. And I was wrong. The same month those layoffs were happening, 69,000 new tech
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  jobs were added. Tech unemployment drops to 3.1%, which was fascinating. And then there are over
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  600,000 jobs still open. So now we are thinking and I was looking at the data. I'm like, well, that
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  sounds like a paradox. Like you got layoffs after layoffs happening. Companies saying they want to
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  do this for AI is dropping, and AI is killing jobs and taking my job out. And then there are all
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  these job openings. What's really happening? Here's the real story. See? Come on in with me. We are
• 1:52
  gonna really dig in and really try to solve this mystery. 40% of the AI layoffs that are really
• 1:59
  because there was over hiring done, according to the research in 2021 and 2022. So they're really
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  rightsizing, as they call it. Companies hired like crazy during the boom time. And now, unfortunately,
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  whatever it is they are cleaning house in AI is a convenient excuse to do that. When Oracle cut
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  over 21,000 people and and while spending over 50 billion on AI infrastructure, I don't think
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  they are actually have less money. They're just using this as an excuse or GitLab just got a ton
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  of jobs and then grew by 23%. I can tell that story over for almost every single company, even
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  Google Cloud I saw the other day. They got the the teams especially go to market and it and some of
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  those kind of teams and the revenue grew by 63%. So is AI killing your job?
• 2:48
  I don't think so. If that's the case, if AI isn't killing your jobs, then it's just exposing the
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  bloat that companies have. And you may not like it, but you and many other might already be part of
• 3:00
  this thing. So why should you even listen to me about this? Because this is an interesting area.
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  Well, look, I ran marketing a part out, and I went from this $10 million company to $10 billion
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  company through acquisitions, had an opportunity to build over $200 million companies. Having
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  written the book on Go to market, and every week I run CEO roundtables that forces me like I like it
• 3:22
  or not, dig into what's really happening. Last week, one of the CEOs was asking me this should I be
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  cutting more of my go to market team and make sure that they do more AI? And then I was like, man,
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  you're crazy. You've already cut everything to the bone. If you cut any more. How are you gonna grow?
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  Before I could even answer, another CEO was just jumping in and saying, well, we hired four senior
• 3:45
  executives right now from our competitors. And I was like, well, let's get the party going. Because
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  while everyone else is slashing what I call the headcount to look efficient, this new CEO that was
• 3:57
  in the roundtable, she's grabbing new talent from their competitors right under their nose. And
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  that's the real story. So I want to give you a a insight into this two track market that we are
• 4:09
  being exposed to. PwC calls it the professionalized and democratized roles. That's
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  what they're calling it. So let's dig into each one of them. The first one is professionalized
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  roles. These are jobs where AI amplifies the human expertise. So AI handles routine stuff so you
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  can focus on, let's say, judgment or creativity or strategy. And the examples of of other jobs could
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  be like radiologist. He uses AI to diagnose faster but still make the call.
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  Recruiters who use AI to source candidates but still have to read people go to market strategist
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  who uses AI to analyze markets, but still have to build a plan that might work and put their name
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  on it. Those roles are seeing two x job growth and 42% faster salary
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  growth. Let me say it again. Those jobs that I just talked about, they're seeing two times more job
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  growth, not job loss and 42% more. As a matter of fact, I just saw meta. And again, this
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  might be you might say, well, this is like a needle in a haystack kind of thing, but it's real meta.
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  just hired a bunch of folks in AI, giving them $45 million salaries,
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  $45 million in stock options in salary. So the 42% faster salary growth is
• 5:27
  real for the right kind of folks. But now this brings me to track number two, which is what BWC
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  talked about, which was really interesting. They call it the democratized rules. These are jobs
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  where AI make the task easier for anyone to do, so less expertise is required and it
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  becomes more commoditized. An example of that could be like IT service managers or medical
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  secretaries or SDRs who just follow up on scripts, AI scripts, and then right. Or marketers who
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  execute playbooks but don't really own strategy. These roles are the ones that are having slower
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  growth to are getting cut of flatter wages to a point where they may not be the useful
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  jobs in the future. The job growing faster are the ones that requires judgment and creativity and
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  leadership. which is why I'm a big fan of adding fractional go to market leaders because of
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  fractional leaders, period. Meg Ryan could be CFO or CFO or CMO or CRO. We have 100 plus certified
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  partners that get hired daily. And all these companies that are looking for executive roles,
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  because that's where you need the job market is not necessarily shrinking for all the jobs, is
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  actually exploding for the roles that where you can use judgment, creativity and leadership. And
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  that's that's the key point that most people are missing. And here's the part that I don't think
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  many people are really thinking about. The entry level jobs like those jobs are changing. When P.W.
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  analyzed and I was digging into it, there are over 2.4 million entry level roles in the US alone.
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  So AI is exposing all these entry levels and now seven times more likely to require a senior level
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  skills. Now, how is it possible for these people to have senior skills? It's not. So if you have 1020
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  years of experience in whatever you feel you have been, you actually are naturally going to have
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  more judgment, more leadership, more, more face to face interactions. Those people, those senior
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  people are growing like 35% since 2021, as I understand. And then entry level
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  roles like SDR and others, that's declining to like 10%. So juniors are
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  going to have a tough time. But if you are an executive or have 1020 years of experience, you
• 7:43
  should become either a fractional and actually see up in the amount of money you could be making.
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  Some of the folks that I know are easily making half 1 million to $1 million as a fractional go
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  to market leader. So what's my advice? That's all we like to focus on is like, if you are a CEO
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  right now listening to this, stop cutting to look efficient. Work for short term, but later on you're
• 8:03
  going to lose big time. Then start hiring from like one of our CEO roundtable leaders did. She's
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  hiding from competitors because the talent grab is happening right now. And if you are a go to
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  market leader who is thinking, man, my job is going to get replaced by AI. Well, that's that's a huge
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  problem because upskilling those skills that you have around judgment, creativity, leadership. Those
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  are actually the keeper. Those are the people that are actually making more money. And so if you're
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  not making more money, you're probably just not thinking about it the right way. And if you are
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  like an individual contributor, spending all your time at 3 a.m. in the morning writing some
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  scripts on AI and prompts, AI is not going to take your job. But someone who knows how to use AI will,
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  so partner up with them. This does not seem like contrary to all the the news that
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  we see. This does not look like a layoff crisis. It actually seems like a reshuffle, and the
• 8:59
  CEOs who get it are using this moment and building a really big business right now. So if
• 9:06
  you are interested in growth and topics like this, just drop in growth and my team will send you a
• 9:11
  CEO manifesto that we wrote up for CEOs, because there's so many people trying to understand what
• 9:16
  should they do to grow their business. So just dropping growth. And my team will send the CEO
• 9:21
  manifesto to you. And until then, until next time, keep moving.