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AI Layoff Cartoon: When “Optimisation” Means Overhiring

  • Writer: Ravi
    Ravi
  • Dec 7, 2025
  • 1 min read

Updated: Jan 11

Cartoon of a boardroom where a leader explains layoffs by calling it AI-enabled optimisation while stock prices rise.

The Scenario: In this AI layoff cartoon, we explore the convenient marriage of a tech buzzword and a management mistake.


After a season of aggressive overhiring, leadership finds itself overleveraged. Instead of owning the strategic misstep, they rebrand the resulting job cuts as "AI-enabled efficiency."


The cartoon captures the irony of a boardroom using 21st-century tech to solve a timeless problem of poor human forecasting.


The Observation: This narrative identifies "Narrative Laundering" in the modern workplace. By labeling a workforce reduction as an "AI layoff," companies shift the blame from the decision-makers to the tools.


At Kaapi with Ravi, we observe that AI didn't overhire—people did. Using technology as a scapegoat for human error doesn't just hurt morale; it avoids the accountability necessary to prevent the same cycle from repeating.


AI layoffs: The only time a CEO treats a computer like a colleague is when they need someone to point the finger at during a town hall.

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