Recently, Paycom, a company based in Oklahoma City, announced that it has laid off more than 500 employees and replaced their jobs with artificial intelligence (AI) tools. This decision has sparked widespread attention and discussion. Affected employees received text messages from the company in the morning, stating "Please do not go to the office." Many were shocked and anxious.
During an arranged online webinar, employees learned that their positions had been eliminated. One of the laid-off employees said in an interview with KOCO: "When I first heard this news, it felt like being struck by lightning." He expressed confusion about the future of automation, questioning whether it would truly benefit customers or just lead to job losses. He said, "You can talk about automation many times, but is it for the customers or for ourselves? I don't know if it will make our work processes easier or make me lose my job."
Paycom referred to this layoff as a "workforce restructuring strategy," and stated that advanced automation technology would only affect limited non-customer-facing positions. However, many employees disputed this. One employee pointed out, "We all deal with customers. If Paycom says otherwise, it's not true." These laid-off employees were told that their personal belongings would be sent home, and they would receive 10 weeks of salary compensation and transition assistance.
Although Paycom stated that they are still hiring in other departments, the jobs of the laid-off employees will be completely handled by AI. This situation left the laid-off employees feeling extremely disappointed, as they had never expected to lose their jobs due to the introduction of AI. An anonymous employee said, "I understand AI, but I never thought it would happen to me."
Key points:
🔹 Paycom laid off more than 500 employees and replaced their positions with AI tools.
🔹 Laid-off employees learned their jobs were cut through text messages, feeling shocked and anxious.
🔹 The company called the layoff a workforce restructuring, and while they are still hiring in other departments, the positions will be handled by AI.
