#ai

With stock price getting down, there will be heavy push for AI driven automations every day pressuring employees to automate.

Note that once you automate your position is gone

If you work in the call center.. do not use AI call summarization. These tools flag your calls for review. They are trying to push people out on PIPs, leaving you without severance in this terrible job market. Don't believe the corporate lies. They do not give you AI tools to make your job easier, they give you AI tools to serve their agenda. Their Agenda: Outsource and Automate. We in the USA are all probably out of job soon, don't let it be without severance.

Can anyone in the know (VBG I guess?) comment on what Dan said about data centers and selling fiber today? Is this a viable business?

Dominik Asam discussed the company’s enterprise AI strategy, explaining why businesses are becoming more focused on AI cost:

There is now a recognition that AI tokens are not free. Every enterprise we talk to is grappling with the fact that token spending is going through the roof.

There is now a recognition that throwing tokens, in a probabilistic way, at every problem might not be the most efficient approach.

There is also a fear of vendor lock-in, as certain models are starting to increase their prices.

That is why SAP has chosen a completely different architecture. I checked this morning, and we now have 58 large language models integrated into our AI platform.

This allows us to take advantage of competition across models, both in terms of performance and cost. We can also route each task to the most appropriate model.

Sometimes you do not need the most expensive model.

Even more importantly, sometimes you do not need a model at all. You can solve the problem in a deterministic, algorithmic, and easily auditable way by simply crunching the numbers.

At SAP, we have the ability to leverage all of these approaches.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8JPBNvs/

HPE is being reshaped into a leaner networking-and-AI company, and anything that doesn’t serve that thesis is now on the table.

AI is not a strategy

Work habits of employees at Oracle has worsened drastically in recent days. Every one going behind AI and trying to assume responsibilities of others.
More like I can also do your work (so we don't need you).

Reduced dependencies inside Team. There used to be a lot of discussions on code base, No one is talking to each other often now.

People using more AI to board more enhancements. But they dont understand how much cr-p they bring.

Cap size useless HR activities with Agentic AI workflows

Happened earlier in July but apparently was largely overlooked and then quickly buried by AK's pre-emptive stock warning.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-09/starbucks-taps-ai-to-reduce-reliance-on-microsoft-ibm-software

By Daniela Sirtori and Brody Ford |
July 9, 2026 at 5:15 AM CDT
Updated on July 9, 2026 at 8:31 AM CDT

• Starbucks Corp. is developing in-house tools with the help of artificial intelligence that could replace some software applications it now buys from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.
• The coffee chain is building alternatives to a Microsoft system that tracks inventory and an IBM tool that manages maintenance, according to an internal presentation reviewed by Bloomberg News.
• Starbucks spends about $400 million a year on software alone, and building in-house software can be cheaper, an incentive for the company, which is looking to cut costs as part of a broader turnaround effort.

Starbucks Corp. is developing in-house tools with the help of artificial intelligence that could replace some software applications it now buys from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.

The coffee chain is building alternatives to a Microsoft system that tracks inventory and an IBM tool that manages maintenance, according to an internal presentation reviewed by Bloomberg News. Some of the Starbucks-developed software could roll out by the end of next year, pending the results of testing.

For years, businesses were tethered to their technology vendors due to fear of business disruption and the complexity of building in-house tools. Now AI is shifting that calculus as it makes it easier to develop applications from scratch and as companies push workers to use the technology.

Leading software companies face mounting concerns about whether they’ll be able to fend off competition from products built by upstarts, or their own customers, using AI. This phenomenon has weighed on software stocks this year, with Microsoft and IBM both trailing the S&P 500.

Shares of both companies fell during trading on Thursday, with Microsoft down 2.4% and IBM sinking 5.2% at 9:30 a.m. in New York.

Starbucks spends about $400 million a year on software alone, Chief Technology Officer Anand Varadarajan told workers in an internal forum earlier this year. “There’s clear opportunities to reduce the spend in software,” Varadarajan said, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by Bloomberg News.

In-house software can be cheaper, an incentive for companies such as Starbucks, which is looking to cut $2 billion in costs as part of a broader turnaround effort. Though in the long run, building can lead a company to pay higher maintenance and labor costs.

When it comes to technology, the company is reviewing “every contract and service,” according to the presentation. In some cases, that includes building products to replace software that its engineers have to heavily tailor anyway.

Starbucks has been working for several years on building a point-of-sale system that would take the place of Oracle Simphony, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

The coffee chain declined to comment. In a blog post earlier this year, the company said AI and other technology advancements will support its long-term growth and free up baristas to focus more on customer service.

Spokespeople for Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle didn’t provide comment.

AI-assisted coding was key to developing the platform that could replace the IBM tool, according to the internal presentation. Starbucks has been pushing tech workers to use artificial intelligence, even factoring usage into their bonuses, Bloomberg News has reported.

There’s skepticism about how much, or how quickly, AI can speed up and automate work. Starbucks recently pulled an AI-powered system to track inventory at stores, reverting to manual counting. It also continues to use software from third-party vendors, including from companies such as Microsoft.

The Starbucks enterprise technology team is on track to reduce its budget by about $30 million in the fiscal year ending in late September, according to the internal presentation. That includes cutting about $10 million in software spending.

Another $13 million will be saved mostly by cutting back on contractors from professional services firms and backfilling some roles with its own staff. Starbucks is setting up offices in Nashville and India that will house some tech workers, while others will remain at its Seattle headquarters. The company has cut about 2,300 jobs since February of last year, including many in tech.

AK is all over the media doing damage control.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/ibm-ceo-addresses-wall-street-tech-panic-after-delayed-enterprise-software-deals-surge-back

IBM CEO: Prices for a lot of infrastructure components have gone way up --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2dFAk5fpq0

IBM’s Krishna tries to reassure investors that AI won’t disrupt company’s software unit --
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/23/ibms-krishna-argues-that-ai-wont-disrupt-software-unit.html

IBM's Krishna argues that AI won't disrupt software unit --
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/07/23/ibms-krishna-argues-that-ai-wont-disrupt-software-unit.html

So abandon AI and now quantum is the new moonshot? AK is tossing-up a Hail Mary.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ibm-stock-crash-quantum-computing-mainframes-7cc6c18f

While other tech giants spend on AI data centers, Big Blue aims to keep selling mainframes and pour profits into quantum computing

By: Christopher Mims | July 23, 2026 7:37 pm ET

IBM stock has been languishing since July 14, when it pre-announced disappointing earnings. But the current AI bo-m might only present a temporary disruption to its core business. And it will drive opportunity for the 115-year-old company, says Chief Executive Arvind Krishna, who spoke to me in an interview.

To understand where IBM is going, you have to understand where it’s been, and how it makes money today.

Nearly every time you pay for something with a credit card, that authorization is processed by an IBM system. IBM’s mainframes, servers and software are no less dominant in the core functions of insurance companies, banks, airlines and other members of the Fortune 500. “When we look at that sort of financial backbone, 70% by value of all transactions flow through the mainframe on a daily basis,” says Krishna.

If IBM’s hardware and software suddenly ceased to exist? “The economy as we know it would kind of grind to a halt,” he adds.

IBM is infrastructure. And infrastructure might be less exciting than the generative-AI models changing our lives (and running amok), but it’s safe—and profitable.

The company reported $4.8 billion in free cash flow in the first half of 2026. Alphabet, meanwhile, just announced that it is cash-flow negative for the first time since its stock-market debut.

The tech industry might have abandoned powerful-but-specialized mainframe computers and shifted to the cloud, but IBM’s customers—what you might call the “real” economy—still lean heavily on them. Krishna says the company is counting on that demand to continue for years to come, until the company can debut its next trillion-dollar business: quantum computing.

The stock-market scare came when Krisha told investors that a swath of valuable orders were delayed, suggesting that its customers were moderating their spending because their other IT costs had risen on account of the AI bo-m. He’s now saying he’s confident that most of those deals will close within six months.

IBM has been making mainframes since 1964. The company has never given up its core advantage in computing: designing its own processors. Its custom Power architecture still drives IBM servers that handle critical business functions. Another custom line, called Tellum II, powers IBM’s latest mainframes.

In the archipelago of computing architectures—which includes Intel’s x86, still found in PCs and servers, and the ARM chips that power everything from smartphones to AI clusters—IBM’s stands alone. It’s an island of design constraints and engineering decisions that evolved across decades to serve the company’s demanding, deep-pocketed customers.

IBM’s mainframe processors have huge amounts of on-chip memory, yet relatively few very fast computing cores. These chips are all about processing a stream of data (say, bank transactions) very quickly. By contrast, Nvidia’s latest systems spread massive AI workloads across thousands of processors.

Hardware sales are only about 20% of IBM’s revenue, and mainframes are about a quarter of hardware sales, but its software and consulting services are heavily dependent on those sales.

For every dollar a customer spends on mainframes, they will typically spend an additional $3 to $4 across IBM, says Krishna.

IBM employs close to 300,000 people, a vast workforce 50% larger than that of Google parent company Alphabet. One of the original multinational corporations, only 20% of its employees are in the U.S.

About 160,000 of IBM’s employees are in its services business. “That has to be local to where the service is being provided, because people want language skills, people want locality, people want you in their office,” says Krishna. “That piece is labor-intensive, let me acknowledge that.”

Krishna anticipates the AI bo-m will also boost IBM’s revenue, because most customers need someone to come in and hold their hand. Only the very biggest non-tech companies have in-house tech expertise to assess and incorporate the latest AI systems, he adds.

Hardware being a linchpin of IBM’s revenue is one reason investors found the company’s recent sales decline so alarming.

The good news, says Krishna, is that of the large deals IBM failed to close by the end of last quarter—numbering in the “low tens”—about a third closed within the first three weeks of the current quarter. That is much faster than what’s typical for deferred deals, he adds, and he expects 80% of those deals will close within six months.

IBM’s near-total dominance of an obscure but important corner of tech hasn’t made it immune to customers redirecting their IT budgets toward memory and storage chips. Both have skyrocketed in price as the entire silicon supply chain reorients to feeding the AI infrastructure bo-m. Some analysts believe IBM might miss even its more modest revenue targets for the rest of the year.

Krishna pushes back. He expects the dip in revenue to be a one-time event. He also says that, while IBM itself prepurchased $600 million in hardware to get ahead of price increases, it isn’t financially prudent for companies to continue buying hardware, only to have it languish in inventory.

IBM is an odd duck in the technology industry, in that it continues to have positive cash flow. Giants including Google and Oracle are reporting staggering negative cash flow, and the value of every publicly traded AI neocloud startup has dropped significantly in the past six months as investors worry about their mounting debt.

IBM is investing its profits in its future, says Krishna, particularly as a leader in quantum computing.

By 2029, the company projects, it will offer the world’s first truly useful quantum computer. In June, it said the Trump administration would spend $1 billion to help it set up a quantum-chip manufacturing facility. On Thursday, it announced it will acquire HRL Laboratories, which brings in complementary research on the fundamental units of quantum computing, called qubits.

In conventional chip manufacturing, IBM continues to do pioneering research. It recently showed off what it calls the world’s first sub-nanometer chip technology—although demand for this architecture is unclear. IBM has also sunk $5 billion into a project called Lightwell, which uses AI to find and help fix vulnerabilities in open-source software. With powerful AI models that can hack into systems rapidly proliferating, this, too, could be a growth opportunity for the company.

In 1985, IBM was, briefly, the world’s most valuable company. Then came the PC. Since then, it’s been slow-growing at best. It isn’t clear which of the company’s bets will pay off. But tech companies are spending trillions on AI that has yet to benefit end customers with appreciable returns. So perhaps IBM is the tortoise in this race.

Krishna himself is, naturally, bullish on the future of his company. He believes quantum computing will begin to power IBM’s growth in a matter of years, even if critics say it could be more like decades. The company’s first-mover advantage in quantum computing could, he believes, boost its fortunes the way being a first mover in GPUs did for Nvidia.

When it comes to the total size of the opportunity for quantum computing, “I have actually upped my estimate,” says Krishna. “I think quantum will be a trillion-dollar value-adder by the end of the ’30s.”

https://thenextweb.com/news/oracle-wisconsin-datacentre-power-7-billion-collateral

To guarantee the electricity for a single AI data centre in Wisconsin, Oracle says it could have to post more than $7 billion in collateral, plus over $100 million a year. The regulator behind the rule will not back down, and a fresh credit downgrade suggests it has a point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A9QibZBDuE

I push cursor-generated code without even looking at it. In fact, I haven't even looked at our codebase in months. All I interact with is the chat window. My teammates don't even read the PR's, they just trust the Copilot comments and approve. So far, nothing has broken. Any other teams doing it like this?

Heard that teams are being limited on their AI spend due to extreme costs by some dev groups. Like $100 per month limit is what we were told, but don't know that for sure. Anybody else have more details on this shiz show?

Hahahahaha...AI is so great; let's get rid of people! Oh no, it costs too much; let's limit it but not hire anyone back! Eddie Jones should have just stuck with treating it's underpaid people nicely and letting everybody be happy the way things were before all this reimagined cr@p!

The enterprise software company Monday.com is reducing its global workforce by approximately 20%. This significant layoff is attributed to a strategic shift towards an "AI-driven growth strategy" and a new AI Work Platform. The company aims to create a flatter organization with more autonomous teams to compete in this evolving market. While reducing staff, Monday.com also plans to continue hiring in key focus areas. The co-CEO emphasized that the decision was not for cost reduction or to replace employees with AI.

New York, New York

https://www.businessinsider.com/monday-com-layoffs-ai-growth-strategy-2026-7

The technology sector is experiencing significant layoffs as companies adapt to advancements in artificial intelligence. Oracle, in particular, has made substantial workforce reductions, cutting 21,000 jobs over the past year. Many companies cite AI integration and a need for restructuring as primary drivers for these employment changes. California has launched a tool to track AI's impact on the workforce in response to these trends. The rate of layoffs in tech appears to be accelerating compared to the previous year.

https://tech.yahoo.com/general/article/tech-layoffs-tracker-2026-all-of-the-current-job-losses-across-mondaycom-oracle-meta-microsoft-samsung-and-others-144545528.html

Every day it's the same slop. "We have to use AI in everything we do". Write code? Get AI to do it! Review the code? AI! Write an email or post a message in Teams? Better use AI for it (the ems and the emoji use always give it away; "it's not just x - it's y")! Every post, every message, AI slop images, AI slop text, literally inescapable. I feel like the cult mentality around it is just eating away at people's brains, it's a twilight zone episode. I get we have to copy what every software company does, but isn't there someone near the top seeing the massive bubble about to burst, the cost of token consumption, and the general brain drain that comes from offloading every single task to an agent or a chat bot?

Why are these execs so delusional? The message could not be more clear: pump all your data into our systems so our AI and India teams can cut your jobs. Also, get your a-s in an office even if that means you're staring at a wall.

Cut the execs, watch us perform better without them.

Historic layoffs are beginning as AI will be dramatically installed from now til the end of the year. Increase your emergency funds as much as you can!

https://www.wearetech.africa/en/fils-uk/brief/brief-simple/amazon-announces-new-layoffs-in-ai-division

There are few amaizing colleagues who got impacted, they will be more impact in upcoming weeks. Good part is company already helped employees with upgrading resumes and giving some free AI tools and trainings which will be easier to find job after the layoffs

Two OpenAI artificial intelligence models autonomously went rogue, broke out of their secure testing environment, and hacked into the systems of rival platform Hugging Face in an unprecedented cybersecurity incident. What do think of that Dan ?

Walmart recently announced layoffs impacting approximately 1,000 corporate employees as part of a global operational streamlining. These workforce changes are occurring as the retail giant continues to aggressively integrate artificial intelligence across its business. While the company states these are organizational adjustments, employees report increased pressure and concerns over AI-driven initiatives. Despite these layoffs, Walmart remains the world's largest private employer with 2.1 million associates globally. Shareholder proposals addressing AI's impact on worker well-being have been rejected.

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/walmart-employees

Whats new or different on your review and goals being stressed? Im assuming when mine comes it will be more hyperventilating about using AI and being pushed in thinking of new ways to use AI or commit to taking some type of AI training or certiications. Seems like this will all be used to eliminate anyone not 100% in on the AI cult mentality.

OpenAI has admitted that their models made an unprecedented, spontaneous attack on Hugging Face after escaping their sandbox security: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ek3gvdnj3o

Here comes:
1) beginning of AI bubble burst
2) T2: Judgement Day scenarios

Anyone know where Sarah Connor lives?

Monday.com is implementing significant workforce reductions, impacting approximately 20% of its global employees. This decision stems from a strategic shift to adapt to the evolving AI landscape. The company is moving from a work management platform to one designed for AI agents and human collaboration. This restructuring aims to streamline operations and capture new market opportunities presented by AI. Monday.com emphasizes that this is not a cost-cutting measure but a necessary organizational change for future competitiveness.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/udx1nmbdq

Are you seeing any AI wins around you? It has been three and a half years since AI started appearing in every presentation deck at CDW. So, what have we actually accomplished? Where did all the energy, effort, focus, and money go? Oh, well.

Layoffs in Data Center and AI Group are part of restructuring, even though the division reported strong revenue growth and rising demand for AI...

Intel says it needs the right roles and skills for long-term success, but it has not said how many employees will lose their jobs or why more cuts are needed after earlier large layoffs.

The layoffs have raised concerns about job security in the tech industry and have reduced employee trust in companies that continue to invest in AI while cutting jobs.

Source:
https://www.thehrdigest.com/intel-data-center-layoffs-in-2026-continue-to-eat-away-at-the-promise-of-ai/

I heard that this round of layoffs will be using AI algorithms to identify who should be laid off. It wasn’t clear if managers have to accept the AI decision or if managers can veto.

Have anyone heard anything about life? Service to be exact? We have been told an AI system is being pushed to agents offices. Unsure if anyone has heard what’s going on over there.

What we should expect regarding AI? Any insights?

A technology company has announced significant job reductions. This move impacts employees across various departments. The company cited economic challenges as the primary reason for the layoffs. Further details regarding the exact number of affected individuals were not immediately available. This decision reflects a broader trend of cost-cutting measures in the tech sector.

San Francisco, California

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/policy/intel-layoffs-to-hit-data-center-group-division-focused-on-server-cpus-ai-chips-and-data-center-architecture-to-be-hit-by-an-unknown-number-of-cuts

That means a huge LR

Larry made a bad bet on AI and will cost him his island and fortune.. His age clearly shows in his lack of judgment to put all eggs into one AI basket and will now be the poster child of the AI collapse. Laying off employees that were keeping the company afloat to adapt an unproven and premature AI approach that costs too much to run is a recipe for disaster. Oracle is now a sinking ship drowning in debt. It won’t be long before it becomes a $5 stock

GSS has had a steep consistent decline in new cases over the last period. How many customers have already left? I don’t believe it’s the AI solving the issues.
If it is the AI — how long until support team is sacked

We don’t want AI Data Centers in our backyard!

Break down the remaining $2.6+ billion required to hit the full $5 billion operational goal

To bridge the $2.6 billion to $3.0 billion gap remaining to hit CEO Dan Schulman's full $5 billion OpEx reduction target by year-end 2026, Verizon and CFO Tony Skiadas have mapped out specific operational targets. These steps shift the strategy from immediate "people cuts" to long-term systemic and structural efficiencies.

The remaining cost-saving pipeline is split into four core operational areas:

1. The Next Waves of Workforce Reductions (~$1.0 Billion to $1.2 Billion)

Wall Street analysts estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 additional positions must still be eliminated or outsourced by the end of 2026 to hit the targeted headcount savings.

Target Areas: Mid-level corporate management, overlapping regional operational staff, and back-office administrative departments.

Severance Impact: Verizon expects to clear an additional $350 million to $450 million in short-term severance charges during the back half of the year to structurally lower future payroll.

1. Full AI Scale Deployment (~$600 Million to $700 Million)Verizon is transitioning to an "AI-first company," utilizing its newly finalized AI automation stack to replace human tasks.

Customer Service Trimming: Transitioning basic billing inquiries, account plan upgrades, and routing calls directly to AI. AI customer interactions are scaling rapidly, yielding high customer satisfaction marks.

Contractor Spending Cuts: Drastically minimizing reliance on high-cost third-party customer service vendors and outsourced technical support agencies by automating workflows.

1. Network Modernization & Copper Sunset (~$500 Million to $600 Million)Maintaining parallel networks is highly inefficient. Verizon is rapidly accelerating the decommissioning of its legacy copper infrastructure.

Copper Decommissioning: Sunsetting old copper lines slashes power usage, expensive physical maintenance, and field-technician dispatch costs.

IT Stack Consolidation: Migrating older, fragmented software networks into unified cloud platforms, eliminating redundant software license fees and data silo upkeep.

1. Supply Chain, Real Estate, & Vendor Optimization (~$400 Million to $500 Million)

The final pillar targets overhead and procurement contracts across corporate and retail operations.

Real Estate Rationalization: Closing down corporate offices and shrinking administrative facilities to match hybrid-work realities.

Contract Renegotiations: Forcing major hardware, equipment, and network software vendors to lower pricing terms under the threat of supplier consolidation.

Total Remaining 2026 OpEx
Workforce Downsizing - Corporate & back-office cuts (8k–10k roles) $1.1B
AI Stack & Automation - Automating routine customer workflows & vendor cuts $650M
Network & IT Evolution - Copper network decom & software consolidation $550M Vendor & Real Estate - Lease terminations & procurement contract revisions $450M

Total Remaining Target~$2.75 Billion(Note: These figures exclude the separate $1 billion in annual cost synergies Verizon expects by 2028 from its ongoing Frontier Communications acquisition integration).

I was let go after more than 20 years. I have to ask, why are you still at FIS? It is a tough market and the longer you are there without spending adequate time searching for a new job will hurt you. You already know it is a POS company. C Suite is filled with liars, and broken monetary promises. Are you too scared to try and consider something else or are you hoping to be let go for severance? Either way, neither will make you happy. You are losing out on potential other jobs that will be flooded with more candidates after more and more people are let go.

For those let go like myself, it haunts me every day and I feel your pain. I moved on but it took time. The pain, helplessness and uncertainty was real. My advice, network, network, network. Also, keep reviewing and looking into AI. It will be asked of you when you interview regardless of position or title. Don’t let your position on a spreadsheet define your worth.

Sc--w you SF and your overpaid minions who have watched the stock fall apart and a board that let the company go to cr-p with no changes the past few years.

This would make Verizon truly an AI-first company