Concerns about how artificial intelligence will affect workers continue to grow with the pace of developments and new products that promise automation and efficiency.
The evidence shows that the fear is justified.
A November MIT The study found about 11.7% of jobs it could already be automated using AI. Research has shown that employers are already eliminating entry-level jobs because of technology. Companies are already pointing to AI as the reason for layoffs.
As businesses more meaningfully embrace AI, some may take a closer look at how many employees they really need.
In a recent TechCrunch survey, several enterprise VCs said that artificial intelligence will have a big impact on the enterprise workforce in 2026. This was particularly interesting because the survey didn’t specifically ask about it.
Eric Bahn, co-founder and general partner at Hustle Fund, expects to see impact at work in 2026. He’s just not sure exactly what it will look like.
“I want to see which roles that are known for more repetition get automated, or even more complex roles with more logic get more automated,” Bahn said. “Will it lead to more layoffs? Will there be more productivity? Or will AI just be an augmentation for the existing labor market to be even more productive in the future? All of that seems pretty unanswered, but it looks like something big is going to happen in 2026.”
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Marell Evans, founder and managing partner of Exceptional Capital, predicted that companies looking to increase spending on AI will pull money from their workforce and recruiting team.
“I think on the other hand, when we see an incremental increase in AI budgets, we’re going to see more human labor being cut and layoffs will continue to aggressively impact the U.S. employment rate,” Evans said.
Rajeev Dham, CEO of Sapphire, agreed that 2026 budgets will begin to shift resources from labor to AI. Jason Mendel, venture capitalist at Battery Ventures, added that artificial intelligence will begin to move beyond being just a tool to make existing workers more efficient in 2026.
“2026 will be the year of the agent as software expands from making people more productive to automating work itself, realizing the value proposition of human-labor displacement in some areas,” Mendel said.
Antonia Dean, a partner at Black Operator Ventures, said that even if companies don’t shift labor budgets toward AI projects, they will likely continue to say that AI is the reason for layoffs or cutting labor costs anyway.
“The complexity here is that many businesses, regardless of how ready or not they are to successfully use AI solutions, will say they are increasing their investment in AI to explain why they are cutting spending in other areas or reducing the workforce,” Dean said. “In fact, AI will become the scapegoat for executives who want to cover up past mistakes.”
Many AI companies argue that their technology doesn’t eliminate jobs, but helps shift workers into “deep work” or higher-skilled jobs, while AI simply automates repetitive “busy work.”
But not everyone buys that argument, and people worry that their jobs will be automated. According to VCs investing in this sector, it does not look like these fears will be quelled in 2026.
