In today’s issue, we look back on a week of workforce developments where AI fluency transitioned from a perk to a career requirement at Accenture, and Sam Altman warned that some companies are "AI washing" routine layoffs.
COMPANY NEWS
In a bid to elevate the usage of its AI technology among its workforce, global consulting firm Accenture is reportedly tracking staff usage of the tools. According to an internal email seen by the FT, the consulting giant has started to collect data on weekly log-ins to its AI tools.
This follows Accenture’s announcement as part of its fourth quarter results back in September, that it would be “exiting people in a compressed timeline where reskilling is not a viable path for the skills”.
Commercial real estate information provider CoStar this week confirmed workforce layoffs, amid mounting pressure from activist investors and an AI push. The layoff news comes the same week as the introduction of Homes.com, which the company describes as a “transformative AI experience” that redefines the future of home shopping.
Real Estate News notes the interesting timing of the announcement, as the workforce cuts follow “mounting pressure” from activist investors over the firm’s spending and strategy. In January, Third Pont called for an overhaul of the CoStar board, and ascribed its “aenemic” performance to “the misallocation of billions of dollars into Homes.com”. Following this, DE Shaw published a letter outlining its frustrations with CoStar.
OpenAI Chief Executive & Founder Sam Altman contends that companies are blaming AI for some workforce cuts that they were already planning.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18 at the India AI impact Summit, Altman referred to the practice as “AI washing”, but acknowledged that there is some “real displacement by AI of different kind of jobs”.
“I expect we’ll see more of the latter over time”, the CEO explained, before adding that the AI era would lead to “new kinds of jobs” as he noted was the case with each technology revolution.
REGULATION
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published its strategic framework this week, where it outlined its plan to professionalise the AI workforce by 2031. The non-departmental UK government body explained that over £1.6 billion of UKRI funding will be targeted at the AI sector, forming only part of its investment in the sector.
UKRI said its focus is on turning AI’s promise into “practical impact high-value jobs, stronger resilience and improved lives”.
DATA
This week , data in the UK revealed that unemployment hit a five-year high. Data from the Office of National Statistics detailed that the unemployment rate rose to 5.2% for the three months ended December, from 5.1%. in the three months that ended November.
In the US, the Department of Labor released its unemployment insurance weekly claims data. For the week ended February 14, the DoL said initial claims totalled 206,000. This was down 23,000 from the prior week’s 229,000, which was revised up from 227,000.
The DoL said the insured unemployment rate was 1.2% for the week to February 7, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate.
On the economic calendar next week, there are a couple of reports to watch out for. Namely, the preliminary ADP weekly estimate on Tuesday, which tracks private employment changes in the US. There is also initial jobless claims data coming out of the world’s biggest economy on Thursday.
Until Wednesday,
LT