‘Millions of Americans of every walk of life are about to see their way of life threatened’ — Andrew Yang’s dire prediction for AI and the workforce

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A sobering statistic from J.P. Morgan highlights growing anxiety about artificial intelligence and jobs: U.S. employers have announced more than 1.1 million job cuts in 2025. Of those, about 55,000 cited AI as a factor — less than 5% of layoffs and about 0.03% of total employment.

Still, concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce are growing as 2026 begins. One of the most outspoken is entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who has warned that automation could displace millions of workers in the coming years.

In a recent Substack post, Yang outlined a troubling outlook for the job market, arguing that rapid advances in artificial intelligence could exacerbate disruptions already underway.

Yang’s blog post, titled “The End of the Office,” predicted the biggest social impact would be the proliferation of artificial intelligence in companies and the job losses of white-collar and office workers.

“It’s not just managers. Call center workers, marketers, coders, financial forecasting teams and more will be affected; business functions will be compressed into the hands of a few key employees, supplemented by artificial intelligence,” he said. “Essentially, the number of people needed to run a large company will be significantly reduced.”

Young also predicts that personal bankruptcies will increase over time as more and more jobs are lost. Things are bad now, but he said they will get worse as more workers lose their jobs and find themselves in dire financial circumstances. This affects not only office workers but also employees in labor-intensive occupations.

“Even if you are not an office worker, you may be affected.” Yang said seriously. “Let’s say you’re a dry cleaner, a dog walker, or a hairstylist. If people in your community stop going to the office, your business will suffer because there will be fewer business shirts being washed, people will be walking their own dogs and going to the salon less often, etc.”

The rest of Yang’s points allude to the greater difficulty finding jobs for current and future college graduates, the abandonment of metro office spaces as the workers who once filled them are laid off, and the public’s growing pessimism about artificial intelligence.

One of the closing words of his blog was to make everyone aware of the difficult times ahead: “I know we can and should do more for the people and families of this country. Without this unity, we are left with just one person each in the face of the greatest technological change of our lifetimes.”