British American computer scientist and co-founder of Google Brain and Coursera, Andrew Ng has called out the “AI jobpocalypse” narrative by mainstream saying fears around automation induced job loss benefits Frontier AI Labs and businesses.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Andrew said that the narrative around “AI taking up all jobs” has become popular because it serves the interests of AI companies in selling their products, helps SaaS companies charge more and gives a reason for businesses to axe employees.
“Like any other technology does affect jobs, but telling overblown stories of large-scale unemployment is irresponsible and damaging. Let’s put a stop to it,” Andrew mentioned in a late night post on X.
He stated that the software engineering sector is most affected by AI tools yet hiring of software engineers is still strong.
“A lot of SaaS software companies charge around $100-$1000 per user/year. But if an AI company can replace an employee who makes $100,000 — or make them 50% more productive — then charging even $10,000 starts to look reasonable. By anchoring not to typical SaaS prices but to salaries of employees, AI companies can charge a lot more,” said Ng.
There will be no AI jobpocalypse.
The story that AI will lead to massive unemployment is stoking unnecessary fear. AI — like any other technology — does affect jobs, but telling overblown stories of large-scale unemployment is irresponsible and damaging. Let’s put a stop to it.… pic.twitter.com/yfO14FphVf
— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) May 12, 2026
His statement comes even as Q1 of 2026 witnessed several tech giants and SaaS companies axing employees with Oracle laying off 30,000, Block with 4,000 and Cloudflare with 1,100 staff due to heavy AI investments.
Andrew agreed that there are examples of AI taking away jobs but he pointed towards the trends that strongly suggest the net job creation is vastly greater than the job destruction — just like earlier waves of technology. The US unemployment rate remains a healthy 4.3%, despite all the exciting progress in AI.
On the other hand Andrew claimed in his post there will never be a collapse of the job market.
“Contrary to the predictions of an AI job apocalypse, I predict the opposite: There will be an AI jobapalooza! AI will lead to a lot more good and I’m also optimistic about the future of the overall job market, Andrew expressed.
“What AI engineers do will be different from traditional software engineering, and many of these jobs will be in businesses other than traditional large employers of developers. In non-AI roles, too, the skills needed will change because of AI. That makes this a good time to encourage more people to become proficient in AI, and make sure they’re ready for the different but plentiful jobs of the future!” he added.
Also Read: 80K Tech Jobs Cut in Q1 2026; Nearly Half Due to AI: New Report
