Why Big Tech Is Quietly Rehiring After Mass AI Layoffs (2026)

Since 2022, more than 700,000 tech workers have been laid off. And if you were hoping 2026 would be different, I hate to break it to you — it's already starting the exact same way.

Meta just announced they're cutting 10% of Reality Labs — around 1,500 employees from their metaverse division. Citibank will cut more jobs as part of its plan to reduce workforce by 10%, or 20,000 employees. And there are rumours Microsoft, Google, and Amazon will continue with cuts this year.

If you're working in tech right now or trying to make the switch, you're probably fearing the worst. And for good reason — the headlines are relentless. Every week it's another company, another round of cuts, another CEO seemingly boasting about AI capabilities.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you everything is fine, because it obviously isn't. But I've done some digging and despite the headlines, there's an untold story about what's really going on behind these AI layoffs — and it might completely change how you're thinking about all of this.

The Game Being Played: AI Washing

You need to understand what's actually driving these decisions, because it's not what they're telling you.

When a CEO announces layoffs and says "we're becoming more efficient with AI" — are they really becoming more efficient? Following 2020, we had a massive boom in hiring as cost to borrow money was 0% and growth seemed infinite with everyone stuck indoors. The number of employees at Amazon virtually doubled overnight, and a similar pattern of aggressive hiring was noticeable across all of big tech.

Then interest rates go up, growth slows down, and suddenly you've got bloated companies. Here's the thing — you can't go to investors and say "we made bad decisions and hired too many people." That makes you look incompetent. It tanks the stock price. So what do you say instead?

"We're leveraging AI to increase efficiency and streamline operations."

Same layoffs, completely different narrative. And Wall Street absolutely eats it up. When Bumble announced AI layoffs, their stock jumped 25% the same day.

This has become so common there's actually a term for it now: AI washing. Companies slapping AI on everything to justify decisions that have nothing to do with AI.

Here's the part that should really make you pay attention: in 2025, across all sectors there were 1.17 million layoffs — but only about 55,000 were directly attributed to AI. That's less than 5%. But "AI is replacing everyone" makes a much better headline than "we overhired during the pandemic and now we're fixing our mistakes."

What's Actually Happening with AI

Let me be clear — I'm not saying AI isn't changing anything. My companies use it. We build with it. It's genuinely useful. But there's a massive gap between "AI is a useful tool" and "AI is replacing your job," and we need to talk about why that gap exists.

Sam Altman told us AGI was right around the corner. Mark Zuckerberg said AI would replace mid-level software engineers in 2025. Did that happen? Obviously not.

MIT released a study showing that 95% of organisations that launched AI initiatives saw little to no measurable impact. Deloitte surveyed nearly 2,000 executives — while more than half said they were using AI, only 10% reported seeing any significant return on investment.

And the companies that went all-in on replacing humans? They're learning the hard way right now:

• Klarna's CEO was everywhere talking about AI doing the work of 700 customer service agents. He wanted Klarna to be "OpenAI's favourite guinea pig." By early 2025, he had to admit quality had suffered, customer satisfaction had dropped, and they'd started hiring humans again.
• Salesforce openly bragged about cutting 4,000 employees because they "needed less heads with AI." By December, they were regretting that decision as AI proved not as good as they thought.
• Former OpenAI researchers who launched AI 2027 — a doomsday report about how AI will take over — are already backtracking, claiming things will take longer than predicted.

This is the reversal that nobody's talking about.

The Quiet Reversal

I'm running my own companies, hiring engineers, and working with businesses trying to implement these systems. What I'm seeing is a shift coming.

Companies spent 2024 and 2025 buying into the hype, firing employees, and believing AI would fill the gap. Now in 2026, we're heading towards a new reality: companies are not only quietly rehiring the employees they fired — the pendulum is swinging back because reality forced their hand.

This should come as no surprise to those of you actually building with AI. The hallucinations, the bugs, the errors — it's not even close to being ready to replace a real engineer.

Here's what's playing out everywhere: a company builds an AI agent that handles 70% of customer enquiries. Sounds amazing, right? But that remaining 30%? That's where 90% of the actual work happens. The edge cases. The complex problems. The stuff that requires real judgment and experience.

It's like looking for a shiny solution in search of a problem.

Signal vs Noise: The Steve Jobs Framework

So if companies are reversing course and aggressively hiring engineers — where does this leave you if you're trying to break into tech or level up?

Steve Jobs was ruthless about one thing: signal to noise ratio. His definition of signal was specific — the top 3-5 things you have to get done in the next 18 hours. Not your vision for next week. Just the next 18 hours you're awake. Those critical things must get done today. Anything that stops you? That's noise.

Most people trying to break into tech right now have this ratio completely flipped. They're running 80% noise, 20% signal.

They spend hours scrolling layoff news, reading articles about AI taking jobs, watching videos about how impossible the market is, complaining on Reddit threads, refreshing LinkedIn to see who else got let go. That's all noise. And the problem is, reading about the news and the job market feels productive. It feels like you're gathering useful information.

But what are you not doing? You're not acquiring the skills you need to compete.

A job market that you're not skilled in simply doesn't affect you. You need to flip the ratio — 80% signal, 20% noise.

The Bar Is on the Floor

I recently posted a software engineering job for my consultancy and asked for a 60-second Loom video to accompany your resume — just explain who you are and why you'd be a great fit. I received over 100 applications in the first day. How many sent a Loom video?

Zero. Nobody bothered. People can't even read basic instructions, let alone go the extra mile.

This isn't a one-off. The bar is genuinely on the floor right now. I had a group call in my community last week where a student said he had 4 certifications, applied to 100 jobs, and heard nothing back. The gap was obvious: no projects, no portfolio, no LinkedIn presence, and I asked him — why can't you apply to 1,000 jobs?

I know it seems unreasonable. But ask yourself: am I doing everything I can to achieve my goals — or am I moving mountains to achieve them?

Imagine this: the market swings back to post-pandemic hiring patterns. Companies expand again. And you spent all that time distracted by noise instead of building the skills you needed. To take advantage of an opportunity when it comes your way, you have to be prepared.

How to Position Yourself for the Rehiring Boom

Here's what actually matters right now:

• Build real skills — actual hands-on experience building things that solve real problems. Not certificates and theory. Proof you can execute.
• Create a portfolio — real projects on GitHub with documentation, architecture diagrams, and Terraform code.
• Post your work on LinkedIn — showcase your talent so recruiters come to you with opportunities.
• Go the extra mile — send that Loom video. Chase up hiring managers. Attend in-person events. Do the thing nobody else bothers to do.

When I'm hiring, I genuinely don't care about your degree. I care about whether you can solve problems and whether you've shown me evidence of that.

The Big Takeaway

The "AI is replacing everyone" narrative is largely corporate PR designed to justify decisions that have nothing to do with AI capability — and everything to do with stock prices and fixing post-2020 overhiring.

The actual data shows companies are regretting these decisions and quietly reversing course. They desperately need engineers who can make AI actually work in production. They need people who understand cloud infrastructure, who can build systems that scale, who can bridge the gap between what AI promises in a demo and what businesses actually need.

Right now, as I'm recording this, there are over 600 cloud engineer jobs posted in the last 24 hours in the US alone on LinkedIn. Every couple of minutes, new jobs are being added.

While everyone else is panicking, the opportunities are there. You just have to start building the skills that matter so you can actually get hired. Most people haven't even genuinely tried — and I know this because I speak to you on a daily basis.

Ask yourself: am I really trying to get hired — or am I moving mountains to get hired? What would happen if I made my career a genuine priority and acquired the skills to compete?

You'll be surprised how much progress you can make in just 30 days by starting today. There are always opportunities for the best engineers. You just have to become one.