Albert Kim is the founder and CEO of Sota Cloud, pioneering through compassionate innovation.
It’s telling when even a human resources company must cut its own people in the name of efficiency. Back in February, Workday, a leading software firm for managing and tracking organizational workforces, announced it would lay off 8.5% of its staff. It slashed 1,750 jobs, partly in an effort to focus on “artificial intelligence investments,” according to the Associated Press.
Workday is by no means alone.
Other major tech players, including Cisco, Intel and Apple, recently trimmed their ranks. This is reflective of a broader business trend to stay lean as AI and automation boost productivity while eliminating human inefficiencies. It was reported in January by LightReading that telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon cut their combined headcounts by more than 15,000 last year as further evidence of the growing phenomenon.
Human Implications
AI is often lauded from a corporate standpoint. Increasingly, it can enable businesses to do more—much more—with less. There are even those who, like OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, believe we will one day see one-person, billion-dollar “unicorn” companies thanks to AI. Despite such promise for would-be entrepreneurs, the pain is real for anyone who has been let go.
Many laid-off employees have dedicated years of their lives to their jobs. To now find yourself unemployed, especially from a company you loved working for, is truly heartbreaking. It’s hard to overstate the emotional anguish and distress the displaced must be enduring in these tough times. The regrettable situation is often exacerbated by the abruptness of so many terminations, preventing previously content staff members from preparing or coping with the setback. Is this the best we can do? Hardly.
Strategies For Compassionate Innovation
As CEO of SOTA Cloud, a web-based dental imaging software company, I believe compassionate innovation is a strategic advantage, not a hindrance. Take culture, for example. A University of Warwick study found that “happiness made people around 12% more productive,” meaning that positive work environments are more productive when empathy and the desire for mutual understanding are encouraged among staff. Put simply, people tend to work harder when they feel good about how they are treated.
Knowing this to be true, organizations would do well to adopt approaches that seek to balance technological competitiveness with humanitarian concern. It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s good business to look out for your staff, as the Warwick study evidences. Based on this reality, here are ideas worth considering, should you decide to make compassionate innovation your North Star.
Reskilling And Upskilling Programs
AI isn’t the only disruptor prompting mass layoffs. The high price of inflation, coupled with fallout from 2025’s ongoing trade war, could lead to increased job losses. Rather than impulsively showing people the door to keep up, corporate leadership can be more intentional about their next moves.
Investing in training programs can be a win-win if companies are willing to think long-term. Instead of rashly downsizing, businesses can equip their existing people with skills relevant to the evolving technological landscape. Not only will this promote a friendlier organizational culture, but it also enables companies to avoid the brain drain associated with losing experienced personnel. Moreover, it encourages internal mobility and loyalty.
Open Communication Lines
Put yourself in your employees’ shoes. Is there anything worse than not knowing if your job is secure? Yes: feeling shut out by those who wield tremendous power over your future. And yet so many companies take a tight-lipped approach to how they interact with their staff. Perhaps the worst examples of this phenomenon occurred at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. If you will recall, some organizations opted to severely close ranks during the crisis, keeping their people in the dark as to their future plans.
The truth is, avoiding hard conversations doesn’t fix the problem. It exacerbates it. Left to wonder what’s coming next, already stressed workers may slip into despair, especially if they feel powerless in the face of a communications blackout.
Honesty—even the brutal kind—is preferable to no information. A better strategy is to open dialogues between the rank and file. Let your people in on what’s going on, even if you’re dealing with bad news. Informing employees about impending changes can improve trust and, if needed, prepare them for transitions.
Automate Ethically
Emerging technological tools like AI can be likened to shiny objects. Naturally, many an organization is excited by all the hype around innovations renowned for cutting costs and boosting profits. But it’s important not to get carried away by such promises. A more measured approach is advisable, especially at the dawn of the AI age, when every media pundit seems to be gushing about the impending societal juggernaut.
It’s best to prioritize a more balanced approach. For instance, leadership can dispassionately consider ways in which AI and automation tech can be used to complement existing human labor, rather than replace it entirely. This speaks once more to the importance of long-term thinking over hasty choices.
It’s in no company’s interest to slash departments and jobs without fully considering the ramifications. Returning to the need to maintain a strong culture for organizational success, it’s important to think carefully and compassionately. Doing so can preserve jobs and maintain morale. This cannot help but enable stronger productivity if managed correctly. Again, a happy workforce is a winning workforce—especially when supercharged with additional automating technology to complement people’s strengths.
Looking Ahead With Compassion
There is little doubt that AI’s increasing integration into business operations is an inevitability. Likewise, it’s undeniable that we are living through uncertain times marked by inflation and market turbulence. Despite these challenges, progressive companies would do well to manage the transition thoughtfully, prioritizing people over process, empathy over efficiency.
By investing in reskilling, maintaining open communication and ethically automating, your business can stand out as an employer of choice. Prioritizing your greatest asset is key to not just winning short term but sustaining lasting success.
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