Companies Are Rehiring Employees After AI Replacements Fail
Artificial intelligence has failed to live up to corporate expectations — and now, many companies are bringing back employees they once dismissed in pursuit of automation.
AI underdelivered on productivity promises
Research by workforce analytics firm Visier revealed a growing trend of “boomerang layoffs,” where employees fired due to automation are now being rehired. The study analyzed data from 2.4 million workers across 142 companies and found that about 5.3% of dismissed staff have returned to their former employers — a number rising precisely as AI adoption accelerates.
The findings suggest that large organizations overestimated the capabilities of neural networks to fully replace human labor. While early projections promised efficiency and cost reduction, the real-world outcomes highlight significant gaps in reasoning, communication, and decision-making that machines have yet to fill.
MIT: 95% of companies see no ROI from AI
A separate report from MIT reinforced these conclusions: 95% of businesses have not seen measurable returns from their investments in artificial intelligence. Many executives now acknowledge that the rush to implement AI led to premature layoffs and loss of critical institutional knowledge.
Analysts expect a restructuring wave in 2026, as companies shift from “AI-first” to “AI-assisted” models — combining human oversight with automation instead of relying solely on algorithms. The experiment to replace people entirely has proven costlier than expected, and corporations are relearning a fundamental truth: technology scales, but human intuition remains irreplaceable.
Editorial Team — CoinBotLab