The AI Layoff Trap
Why Competitive Automation May Weaken Consumer Demand Artificial intelligence is reshaping how organisations approach productivity, cost control and workforce design. Yet a new economic model raises a difficult question: what happens when many companies replace employees with AI at the same time, and those employees are also the consumers who sustain demand across the economy?In The AI Layoff Trap, Brett Hemenway Falk and Gerry Tsoukalas examine this issue through a competitive, task-based economic model. Their central finding is not simply that automation can displace workers. It is that competitive incentives can lead rational firms to automate beyond the level that would be best for businesses and society collectively. The core problem: private savings, shared costs When an organisation replaces a worker with…