Davos 2026: AI Anxiety Set to Rise Amid Layoffs and Lawsuits

Global concern about AI is set to intensify in 2026, following a year in which job cuts linked to the technology dominated headlines and public debate.

Influential policymakers, business leaders, and analysts say the economic promise of AI is colliding with growing uncertainty for workers, and that companies and governments remain dangerously unprepared for the pace of change.

A ‘tsunami’

Speaking Tuesday (Jan. 20) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was in conversation with CNBC’s Karen Tso and Steve Sedgwick.

“We see potential to up of 0.8% boost to growth over the next years, but it is hitting the labor market like a tsunami, and most countries and most businesses are not prepared for it,” she explained.

Her remarks reflect a widening divide between AI’s productivity potential and the societal disruption it may cause. While governments and executives increasingly frame AI as a tool for competitiveness and growth, workers are more likely to experience it through restructuring, shifting job expectations, and fears of being replaced.

“What do they [countries and companies] have to do? They need to think about the new skills that are already necessary and how they’re going to have these new skills,” she added.

That call for proactive reskilling comes amid mounting evidence that employees are feeling the strain, and that investor patience is wearing thin for organizations that treat AI adoption as a cost-cutting exercise rather than a workforce transition strategy.

Layoffs put AI in the spotlight

AI was seen as a significant contributing factor to nearly 55,000 layoffs in the U.S. in 2025, according to December data from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Major companies have increasingly cited AI when announcing job reductions, fueling perceptions that automation is accelerating workforce shrinkage across multiple industries.

Amazon announced 15,000 jobs cuts last year, while Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff said 4,000 customer support workers had been let go because AI was already doing 50% of the work at the company.

Other companies that cited AI in restructuring were tech consultancy firm Accenture and airline group Lufthansa.

These announcements have helped cement a growing narrative: that AI is not only changing how work is done, but also changing how many workers companies believe they need. For employees, that raises immediate questions about career security, wage growth, and the durability of entry-level roles that have traditionally served as stepping stones into higher-paying positions.

At the same time, labor experts warn that layoffs attributed to AI can be difficult to verify. Corporate restructuring decisions are rarely driven by a single factor, and firms may point to AI in an effort to justify cuts, frame them as strategic, or reassure investors they are modernizing.

Worker anxiety rises

Employee sentiment appears to be deteriorating as AI-related workforce headlines continue. Preliminary findings from consultancy firm Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2026 report, which surveyed 12,000 people worldwide, indicate that concerns about job loss due to AI climbed from 28% in 2024 to 40% in 2026.

Mercer’s research also found that 62% of employees feel leaders underestimate AI’s emotional and psychological impact.

That shift suggests anxiety is no longer limited to workers in traditionally automatable roles. Instead, it is spreading across sectors and seniority levels, as AI tools grow more capable in areas like writing, data analysis, customer service, design, and coding.

Some executives are now confronting the reputational and human-cost risks of rapid AI deployment. Leaders that push AI adoption without clear job pathways, training plans, or transparency could face rising attrition, internal backlash, and recruitment challenges—particularly among younger workers who are watching the first major disruptions unfold early in their careers.

Legal and social tensions could intensify

Analysts at Deutsche Bank argue that the public response to AI will become even more intense in the year ahead, extending beyond job displacement into legal battles and regulatory pressure.

The warning points to a broader implication: as AI becomes embedded in everyday life, the conflicts it generates will no longer be contained within tech departments or boardrooms. Instead, they are likely to show up in courtrooms, government hearings, and consumer trust debates, potentially influencing how quickly AI systems can be deployed at scale.

The Deutsche Bank note also cited a Stanford study in November, which referenced a 16% relative decline in employment for graduates in roles exposed to AI, while jobs for experienced employees remained stable since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

If younger workers are disproportionately affected, the long-term implications could include slower career progression, fewer entry-level openings, and widening inequality between workers who can leverage AI tools and those competing directly against them.

Is AI being used as a scapegoat?

While AI is frequently blamed for cuts, some researchers argue its actual labor market impact remains limited so far. Deutsche Bank analysts cautioned that companies may be overstating AI-driven job losses.

Companies attributing much of the blame for job cuts to AI should be taken “with a grain of salt,” as “AI redundancy washing will be a significant feature of 2026,” according to the note.

Yale University’s Budget Lab echoed that skepticism in a report in October, concluding that AI has not yet produced major labor-market shifts. The lab analyzed U.S. labor market data from 2022 to 2025 and found the share of workers in different jobs hadn’t changed dramatically since ChatGPT’s debut.

Investors demand upskilling

As AI shifts from buzzword to business reality, Mercer’s report suggests investors are increasingly prioritizing workforce readiness. It found that 97% of investors said funding decisions would be negatively impacted by firms that fail to systematically upskill workers on AI.

Over three-quarters of investors said they are more likely to invest in companies that provide AI education to employees.

Ravin Jesuthasan, a future of work expert and senior partner at Mercer, stressed that investors are increasingly willing to reward or punish companies based on whether they manage AI transition responsibly.

He said they’re going to “actively invest or disinvest in companies that aren’t getting to the optimal combinations of humans and machines,” describing upskilling as essential to “sustaining the economic performance of the organization.”

It’s the IMF again. They just delivered an unexpected signal: the global economy may be stronger than feared in 2026. And AI helped.

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