How companies are impacting people by using AI

Companies around the world have been adopting artificial intelligence at pace, impacting employees, consumers and the wider community in ways they themselves are still trying to understand.

Nine out of ten companies surveyed by McKinsey globally in 2025 reported using AI – up from eight out of ten a year earlier.¹ While most are experimenting and piloting, companies acknowledge that it is transforming jobs and creating new risks.

Companies see AI as an opportunity to boost the productivity of their workforce. Japan’s Fujitsu, an information technology company, has quantified the effect; it says using AI to redesign processes saved employees 1.34 million work hours in 2024.²

Job losses

One consequence is job cuts. AI is the main reason for layoffs announced in the US so far this year.³ Amazon, IBM, Klarna, Microsoft and Salesforce are among companies that have cited AI as the reason for making people redundant.⁴

In Europe and Asia, few companies have linked AI to job cuts. But it may just be a matter of time. More than 40% of employers surveyed globally for the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 said they plan to reduce their workforce by 2030 in areas where AI can be deployed.⁵

Meanwhile, some jobs aren’t being created because of AI. Entry-level roles highly exposed to AI have already declined faster than entry-level roles with low exposure.⁶

Reskilling and upskilling 

But for AI to fulfil its promise, employees must learn how to deploy and use the technology. Companies are therefore focusing on training: upskilling employees whose jobs may be reshaped and reskilling those whose roles may largely be taken over by AI.

According to the Future of Jobs Report 2025, upskilling the workforce is how the vast majority of employers (85%) plan to adapt over the next few years to the trends shaping their business. In addition, almost nine employers out of ten named “AI and big data” as the skill that is gaining most in importance.

Disclosures about AI training are becoming commonplace. For example, Capgemini, a technology service and consulting company, said it has trained more than 150,000 employees on generative AI tools.⁷ Deutsche Telekom, a telecommunications company, organises events to help employees integrate AI in services for its customers.⁸

Job creation

Some argue that the productivity gains promised by AI may mitigate a growing imbalance between retired and working-age populations.⁹ A recent research paper by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is more nuanced: AI would help if it substitutes human labour, but if it primarily complements humans it could exacerbate a looming labour shortage in developed economies.¹⁰

AI may in fact lead to more job creation than destruction, several studies have shown. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, a US investment bank, estimate that AI’s negative impact on employment levels will be modest and short-lived.¹¹ The Future of Jobs Report 2025 estimates AI will lead to a net increase of about 78 million jobs globally by 2030.¹²

If this is the case, AI will not help to offset a wave of retirements, and the OECD notes in its Employment Outlook 2025 that “while AI can improve productivity, it is by no means a substitute or silver bullet for a lack of human workers.”¹³

A growing risk

As any new technology, AI creates risks as well as opportunities. Seven companies out of ten on the S&P 500 index reported AI as a material risk in 2025, up from just one out of ten two years earlier.¹⁴ They primarily see risks to their reputation from AI failures such as mishandling sensitive information, making mistakes or providing inappropriate answers.

Despite the concern, companies are adopting the technology faster than they can govern it, according to an analysis by the Thomson Reuters Foundation of publicly available data on corporate AI adoption.¹⁵ For instance, more than two-thirds of companies with an AI strategy did not assess the societal impact of AI beyond end users, and just over one in ten reported that they had policies in place to mitigate the negative impacts of AI systems on workers.

AI is eliminating jobs, reshaping others and creating new roles, and companies are investing in training as they explore how the technology can help them. While many acknowledge the risks of AI, few have yet put adequate guardrails in place.