Business AI

OpenAI published its first State of Enterprise AI report, drawing on usage data and a survey of 9,000 workers across nearly 100 companies. ChatGPT Enterprise messages have risen 8× year-over-year and the consumer version now serves more than 800 million weekly users. Structured workflows are up 19× this year, reasoning token consumption soared 320×, and 75% of employees say AI improves speed or quality. Workers report saving 40–60 minutes per day, with the fastest enterprise growth in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and markets such as Australia and Brazil. The data reveals a widening gap: frontier workers send six times more messages than the median and frontier firms send twice as many per seat. OpenAI notes it now ships a new capability roughly every three days, making organizational readiness—not model performance—the core adoption hurdle.

London consultancy Global Data TS Lombard reports that unemployment for new U.S. labor-market entrants has jumped more than 2.5 percentage points since 2023. Economist Dario Perkins says the spike stems from companies not hiring, not from AI displacement. In sectors most exposed to AI, job losses are no worse than elsewhere, underscoring the broader slowdown. Perkins attributes the freeze to post-pandemic head-count normalization, policy uncertainty, and margin pressure from Trump-era tariffs. The hiring pullback leaves young workers facing the toughest market in years even as overall employment holds steady. Perkins highlights that the weakness reflects “recessionary levels of job creation” across the economy rather than AI-driven layoffs.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox launched a “pro-human AI” initiative spanning workforce, industry, government, academia, public policy, and learning. The program sets aside $10 million to create curriculum that makes the state’s workforce “AI-ready.” Cox also unveiled an academic consortium to pursue “moonshot” breakthroughs in human-centered innovation. He said the 2026 legislative session will weigh rules to curb harmful chatbots, mandate deepfake transparency, and limit AI in health care. Cox argued Utah must act because Congress has not passed meaningful AI laws and should not block state authority. The combined training funds and guardrails show a state moving quickly to shape AI adoption on its own terms.

KPMG’s latest survey finds 52% of U.S. workers now fear AI-driven job displacement, almost double last year’s level. The poll covers more than 2,100 employees across industries and was conducted in June and July. While 85% of companies offer some AI training, 84% of employees say it’s insufficient and less than half make it mandatory. Separate research from Economist Impact shows finance chiefs split almost evenly on whether headcount cuts are the most compelling proof of AI ROI.

The Internal Revenue Service will deploy Salesforce’s Agentforce AI across its Chief Counsel, Taxpayer Advocate Services and Appeals divisions. The system will handle case summarization and search to close taxpayer cases faster. The agency’s workforce shrank from 100,000 to 75,000 this year after Trump administration layoffs, heightening the need for automation. Salesforce says guardrails stop the agents from making final decisions or disbursing funds, ensuring humans stay in charge. The move gives Salesforce a marquee government customer and showcases large-scale AI use in the public sector. A 38-year IRS veteran calls the shift inevitable as the agency modernizes legacy systems and competes with private law firms.

McKinsey has cut 200 tech jobs globally this week, focusing on non-client-facing and tech-support positions. The firm says those duties are being automated as it rolls out new AI tools. Headcount has already fallen from about 45,100 at the end of 2023 to around 40,000 in May, a 10% drop across 18 months. Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels says the company will keep hiring client-deployed consultants while trimming back-office roles through AI. The layoffs place McKinsey among the 30% of companies its own research says are reducing staff because of AI. Industry reports cited in the article show clients increasingly favor AI-powered, leaner consulting teams over the legacy pyramid model.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a study that found that artificial intelligence can already replace 11.7% of the U.S. labor market. The study was conducted using a labor simulation tool called the Iceberg Index, which was created by MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For lawmakers preparing billion-dollar reskilling and training investments, the index offers a detailed map of where disruption is forming down to the zip code.

U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October, up 175% from the 55,597 cuts announced in October 2024. It is up 183% from the 54,064 job cuts announced one month prior, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month. Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes.