As a technology, artificial intelligence remains in its infancy — but a tech CEO still stands behind his 2023 decision to fire the bulk of his staff over AI in 2023, according to Fortune.
In January 2023, OpenAI's ChatGPT was two months old, and xAI's Grok had yet to debut. AI was even younger then, but IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughan became convinced that a watershed moment had arrived.
Though AI was far more speculative and untested at the time, Vaughan believed an "existential" change was afoot and that a widespread staff cull was unavoidable.
Consequently, Fortune reported, Vaughan "ripped the company down to the studs" to focus on having a company full of loyal employees who would embrace using AI in the ways he envisioned. In reality, throughout 2023, IgniteTech claimed it replaced almost 80% of its workforce to align with Vaughan's purported vision of an AI-centric future.
In the job market, AI has been a source of destabilization and confusion on several fronts.
Unemployment ticked upward throughout 2025, but companies and candidates alike insisted AI-enabled systems had gummed up the works, preventing both parties from finding one another in a sea of AI-generated résumés and cover letters.
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Robots replacing humans was just one way AI rocked daily life.
Data centers — infrastructure built to support the growing number of AI-powered technologies — became a point of contention, creating noise and air pollution wherever they appeared. These massive facilities consume significant amounts of public resources, including water and power.
The data center boom sharply increased energy demand, which in turn caused electric bills to skyrocket by as much as 36.3%. Data center activity also strained the already insufficient grid, prompting a warning from the Department of Energy about future blackouts.
On Jan. 7, Fortune reported that so-called AI layoffs appeared "more and more like corporate fiction," concealing routine staff reductions, overhiring, and financial constraints.
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Financial assistance for job training 💰 The outlet cited a new analysis from Oxford Economics, which found that "firms don't appear to be replacing workers with AI on a significant scale," irrespective of headlines to the contrary. Nevertheless, Vaughan stood by his decision to replace four out of five staffers in 2023.
"It was extremely difficult. … But changing minds was harder than adding skills," Vaughan said.
According to Fortune, Vaughan didn't hesitate when asked if he'd "do it again," but he acknowledged that firing so much of his staff didn't allay his fear of falling behind competitors.
"We're just not getting run over from behind yet. The pace of change in AI is relentless. If we don't keep pushing, keep learning every single day, we're toast," Vaughan told Fortune.
For companies that have everyday customers who want to be sure their goods and services have a human touch, like Duolingo, the pivot toward AI has not come without regrets, as the language learning company told Fortune in 2025 that it was walking back its AI goals following significant consumer backlash.
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