Marc Benioff Dismisses AI Layoff Fears – But What Do the Numbers Say? 

This year’s tech layoffs have already nearly reached 40,000, as of March 9. This spans just under 60 companies, and means that Q1 2026’s layoffs were higher than Q1 2025’s. Many of these have already been attributed in some way to artificial intelligence.

Multiple tech leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Whoop’s Will Ahmed, have come out to address the rising fears surrounding AI-driven layoffs, and now Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, has dismissed claims that mass white-collar layoffs are happening. This is despite Salesforce already cutting nearly 1,000 jobs in the last three months.

Nearly 40,000 Layoffs Already

In the first few months of 2026, there have reportedly been 37,045 job cuts in the tech sector across 59 companies, with some of those affected including Workday, Amazon, and Salesforce. 

According to Layoffs.fyi, the tech layoffs in Q1 2026 so far are marginally higher than those of Q1 2025, potentially setting the tone for the rest of the year.

This phenomenon is well-covered. Publications like Business Insider have been covering the ongoing situation with articles like “Tech jobs are getting demolished in ways not seen since 2008 and the dot-com bust”, and it has been revealed that tech job losses now outpace past downturns in 2008 and 2020, according to economist Joseph Poltano.

The Ongoing Argument: Is AI the Culprit?

Whether or not recent mass layoffs in the tech sector are actually down to increased AI efficiencies is something that really started gaining momentum last year. 

When Microsoft announced layoffs last May, we posed the question on SF Ben on whether AI was really the culprit behind them, especially as Microsoft was not the first company to either allude or directly correlate the layoffs with AI. Microsoft said these layoffs were not related to performance and were instead part of a wider success measure, but where was Microsoft seeing success at the time? AI. 

In August, Marc Benioff insisted that mass layoffs of white-collar workers in the tech industry due to AI were not happening, and that we as worriers or naysayers needed to “let it go.” Just over a month later, Benioff announced that the company had begun “rebalancing” its workforce by using AI agents to replace around 4,000 customer support division employees.

A report from Harvard Business Review in January suggested that the “phenomenon of AI taking jobs and reducing hiring is somewhat artificial,” as companies were laying off employees based on AI’s potential – not its performance. Through this anticipatory action, you could argue that many of these businesses are jumping the gun here, and while that would seem like the case, it also highlights just how ruthlessly companies are thinking about innovation through profit growth at the moment.

The Block Scenario

Perhaps no one shed more light on the AI layoffs situation than Block’s Jack Dorsey, especially after he recently laid off just under half of his workforce as the company “embraced” AI. 

Block, which owns Square, CashApp, and Tidal, is owned by Twitter co-founder Dorsey, who wrote in a letter to shareholders that these layoffs were necessary because AI “fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.” On X, he shared a similar notice, citing that this decision was made not because the company was in trouble, but as a risk that Dorsey needed to take to get ahead.

However, once again, not everyone is convinced. Forbes writer Ron Shelvin says, “don’t buy the excuse”, and says that ultimately, all roads lead back to Wall Street and what they see. 

“The AI framing is convenient,” he wrote. “But Wall Street doesn’t know – nor does it care – if AI ‘intelligence tools’ are actually ready.

“Block didn’t cut 4,000 jobs because AI made them obsolete. It laid off staff to make Wall Street happy.”

Marc Benioff: “I Just Do Not See It”

Last Wednesday, in an interview with CNBC, Marc Benioff addressed his thoughts on the AI layoffs scenario once again, shortly after the news of the Block layoffs broke. This time, it seemed as if history was almost repeating itself. 

“Listen, obviously, that company has its own unique issues,” he said, referring to Block. “We all know that, so let’s put that aside. These pronouncements of these mass white collar layoffs: I just do not see it.”

This feels eerily familiar to Benioff’s own words from last year, where he previously rebutted white-collar layoffs in this context. As we know, last time, it was just over a month later when talks of recent “restructuring” came into light. This time around, Salesforce’s latest layoffs were exactly a month ago, and it seems like sentiments haven’t changed. 

Although these recent layoffs were not attributed to AI, it still poses a particular question. Do these tech leaders really believe these white-collar layoffs have become normal, cyclical procedures, or do they just understand that AI is indeed not the driving force?

Final Thoughts

As layoffs progress throughout the year, I predict that the discussion around this issue and AI will continue to manifest in new ways. Tech leaders will continue to say their piece, employees will continue to speak out (like Block’s are currently doing), and we will undoubtedly see more CEOs link fresh cuts to the powers of artificial intelligence, somehow. 

In the meantime, you can track tech layoffs via layoffs.fyi, and AI-related layoffs across numerous sectors at ailayofftracker.com.