Summary#
First the online travel provider Lastminute, then the online pharmacy DocMorris: within a single month, two listed companies in Switzerland justified larger job cuts with AI. At Lastminute, a reorganization is expected to eliminate about a quarter of its roughly 1,600 positions; at DocMorris, around 100 full-time roles group-wide. Michael Siegenthaler, head of the Swiss Labor Market research division at the KOF Institute, has observed a trend since 2024: especially in certain IT jobs and heavily language-based roles, the job market has weakened because of AI, and fewer entry-level positions are being advertised. At the same time, it remains unclear whether the hoped-for productivity gains actually materialize in day-to-day work.
My Quotes#
On the real, measurable effects of AI investments:
“For most companies, the AI investments are not yet paying off in a measurable way.”
When companies announce job cuts, it pays to look closely at whether specific functions are named. Many companies that announce “AI-driven” layoffs do not actually have mature AI in place that would replace those roles. In some cases, such announcements primarily serve to please investors.
Because an AI message
“sounds better than admitting that the business is struggling.”
Read the full article on blue News
The same Keystone-SDA story also appeared on swissinfo.ch: Read the article on swissinfo.ch