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The Diary Of A CEO · 2 min · Jun 16, 2025

A CEO expects AI agents to shrink his workforce to 3,000

Steven Bartlett recounts an unnamed major-company CEO's figures: more than 7,000 employees, 5,000 last year, 3,600 now and 3,000 projected by summer. He says AI agents handle 80% of service inquiries.

Steven Bartlett, Host

Host, The Diary Of A CEO

About this segment

Steven Bartlett recounts an unnamed major-company CEO's figures: more than 7,000 employees, 5,000 last year, 3,600 now and 3,000 projected by summer. He says AI agents handle 80% of service inquiries.

From “Godfather of AI: They Keep Silencing Me But I’m Trying to Warn Them!”, Jun 16, 2025. Watch the full episode

Answers “Which jobs will AI replace, and which are safe?” See all 42 answers

Answers “What will AI look like in the next few years?” See all 84 answers

Answers “Are AI agents ready for real work?” See all 50 answers

Answers “Is AI paying off for companies?” See all 18 answers

“He said right now they have 3,600. And he said by the end of summer, because of AI agents, they'll be down to 3,000.”
Steven Bartlettat 1:27:04 · The Diary Of A CEO1:27:04

Takeaways

  1. The CEO's reported headcount fell from just over 7,000 to 3,600.
  2. He forecast 3,000 employees by summer.
  3. Bartlett says agents handle 80% of customer-service inquiries.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 39:42AI could replace far more workers than past technologies3:08
  2. 12:02AI makes cyberattacks easier, so Hinton spreads his savings3:55

  3. 1:25:46A CEO expects AI agents to shrink his workforce to 3,0002:21

  4. 17:18Personal data can enable targeted election manipulation4:58Up next
  5. 25:56Autonomous weapons could lower the cost of invasion3:49
  6. 53:56Basic income may not replace the dignity of work2:32

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 1:25:51

    with everything that you see ahead of us what is the biggest threat you see to human happiness i think the joblessness is a fairly urgent short-term threat to human happiness i think if you make lots and lots of people unemployed even if they get universal basic income um they're not going to be happy because they need purpose because they need purpose yes and they need to feel they're contributing something they're useful and do you think that outcome that there's going to be huge job displacement is more probable than not yes i do and what's that one i think is definitely more probable than not if i worked in a call center i'd be terrified Right.

  2. 1:26:38

    And what's the time frame for that in terms of mass job? I think it's beginning to happen already. I read an article in The Atlantic recently that said it's already getting hard for university graduates to get jobs, and part of that may be that people are already using AI for the jobs they would have got. I spoke to the CEO of a major company that everyone will know of, lots of people use, and he said to me in DMs that they used to have just over 7,000 employees.

  3. 1:27:06

    He said by last year, they were down to, I think, 5,000. He said right now they have 3,600. And he said by the end of summer, because of AI agents, they'll be down to 3,000. So it's happening already. Yes. He's halved his workforce because AI agents can now handle 80% of the customer service inquiries and other things. So it's happening already. So urgent action is needed. Yep. I don't know what that urgent action is.

  4. 1:27:33

    that's a tricky one because that depends very much on the political system and political systems are all going in the wrong direction at present and what do we need to do save up money like do we save money do we move to another part of the world i don't know what would you tell your kids to do they said dad like there's going to be loads of just job displacement because i worked for google for 10 years they have enough money Okay, okay, fine.

  5. 1:27:58

    So they're not typical. What if they didn't have money? Trying to be a plumber. Really? Yeah.