#WSJ: The CEO Preaching Straight Talk About AI and Job Losses

Wall Street Journal: 4/19/2026 #WSJ 📰

Verizon’s Dan Schulman is all in on AI, but he warns that it is time for business leaders to acknowledge its disruptive potential.

For a big-company CEO with big AI ambitions, Verizon's [vz0.24% v
Dan Schulman doesn't pull punches about the pain the technology could unleash on America's workforce.
Just months into the job, he has predicted 20% to 30% unemployment within the next two to five years. He warns that advancements in humanoid robots could upend the manual-labor jobs still seen as safe today. And he has pushed for more education and reskilling to help workers adapt to the intensifying tech disruption.
Couched in the blunt AT talk is a warning for other CEOs: Be candid about the coming disruption, or risk a public backlash. “It’s a very difficult time, and everyone knows it is,” Schulman said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “So I think being authentic, being realistic, telling the truth, as best you can” is key. That belief, he said, is why Verizon created a $20 million career-transition and retraining fund for the “age of AI” when the company began laying off 13,000 workers last year.
Schulman's big picture has also included sweeping job cuts. The 13,000 #layoffs he announced shortly after his appointment
as CEO in October were Verizon's largest ever —but necessary to make Verizon more efficient, he said. Altogether, he is seeking to cut $9 billion in costs. Verizon has said its #layoffs weren't related to AI.
The carrier was "too hierarchical, way too bureaucratic, way too process-oriented as opposed to outcomes-oriented," Schulman told investors at a Morgan Stanley (M5100% ) event last month.
In meetings, he has repeatedly told Verizon staff they must embrace AI, describing it as core to the company's future. He used it himself to comb through some He used it himself to comb through some 8,000 responses after asking employees how he could reduce bureaucracy, he said.
Schulman's embrace of Al goes deeper than cost-cutting. He envisions a company wholly reshaped by the technology, from improved customer service to more personalized options for
consumers.
And he has encouraged staffers to talk to their children about Al at the dinner
table. In one all-hands, Schulman recommended that staff ask Al to write their obituary to see how the technology works and how it frames their lives. He
has also invited staffers to experiment with AI by writing poems to their loved ones. (He said he has done the same for his wife.)
Some employees responded by using Al to write poems for Schulman-and they weren't bad, he said. ~
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ceo-preaching-straight-talk-about-ai-and-job-losses-a3aaaaf1?

#AI #AILayoffs #CEO #Layoffs #Upskilling

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13 replies (most recent on top)

It is not only the country that would fall apart but most if not all of the companies as well. 30% unemployment leads to people not being able to afford the products these companies make. Sales will disappear, stocks will drop, massive recession. No one will be able to afford to put gas into their cars, houses will be foreclosed upon, people evicted from their rentals. That then will lead to strain on local gov't to provide assistance which they won't be able to so bankruptcy of states will follow. Tax money will disappear. No jobs, no income, no shopping means no taxes being collected. Etc, etc, etc. It will all snowball very quickly.

He's rationalizing destroying people's lives rather than leading.

When people quit thinking as he has by having the gall to allegedly write poems to his wife among other things then we are not humans anymore.

There will be huge fallout from the corporate vultures throwing workers to the trash, especially given the times we live in and all the lunatics around us.

@bn Greece was bailed out by the EU, if the EU did not bail out Greece it would have imploded. - “Greece: During the Eurozone crisis, unemployment peaked at 28.3% in July 2013.

Spain was bailed out by the EU, if the EU did not bail out Spain it would have imploded - “Spain: Peaked at 27.1% in early 2013 “

Those countries are not the same anymore, they imploded and have all new governments. - “The Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania)”

I am Eastern European, I went through all that implosion and my county is now in a war.

@ay love it!

@bc Maybe Dan needs his bloody money to build an isolated fortress instead of a ranch.

To your point, it's not entirely true and there are some recent positive examples. Although it is very likely that Greece or Spain wouldn't make it
if the entire EU was undergoing the same.

If AI bo-m results in AGI or ASI, yes, pretty much all developed countries are sc--wed because lazy and corrupted politicians will be clueless and slow to react. Our societies are not ready for this. Universal income might be a partial solution but it won't be without a LOT of pain, and likely revolutions indeed. There is non-zero possibility that the US will turn into military dictatorship or fascist regime to protect the very elites that caused it.

Greece: During the Eurozone crisis, unemployment peaked at 28.3% in July 2013. As of early 2026, it has recovered significantly to 8.5%. This recovery happened without a revolution, though it involved massive civil unrest and international bailouts.

Spain: Peaked at 27.1% in early 2013 following the global financial crisis. It has since recovered to 9.9% as of late 2025. Spain's transition was managed within its existing constitutional monarchy and EU framework.

The Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania): These nations faced massive "shock therapy" after 1989 and again during the 2008 crisis. Latvia saw a peak of 30% GDP decline and very high unemployment.

This guys is an id--t. If there is 20 to 30% unemployment there will be a flat our revolution and a complete social breakdown. In the US during the Great Depression unemployment peak at 25% and it almost tor the US apart! Give the politics of today people will not stand for that! There will be an armed revolution at 20 to 30% and the people that created AI that caused such pain will be taken care of if you know what I mean. No society in history has survived a 30% unemployment rate.

@a2 Not true, when I get to the cable failure, I ask Claude what I should do. He says get your a-s out of the truck and get to work. Right every time.

Fu-k that guy…and the one before too

Most of them can’t spell AI

I can't wait for this AI bubble to blow up, and for Dan to retreat back to his ranch with major egg on his face.

seriously? ask AI to write your obituary. He kept talking about using AI to write a poem to his wife. He is so ridiculous. how is that going to delight verizon's customers again? its been 8 months now. same story line. Is Dan using this article to boost the stock at earnings? is it preparing the market for more lay off announcements?

What kind of dum--ss is using AI for writing poems? My god….

Yet, question anyone in upper management for an actual use for it and you won't get a single, useful response.

Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

#WSJ: The CEO Preaching Straight Talk About AI and Job Losses

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