AI Layoffs Are Here, and Small Businesses Can’t Ignore Them 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve owned and run a copywriting business for nearly 25 years. And I’ve seen my business – and my industry – greatly affected by AI. So I know firsthand how fast it can happen.  

Many people I talk to in other industries seem to think it’s going to stop with writing and graphic arts, that their companies and/or professions will not be affected. That’s a mistake. AI is coming for almost all rules-based work (e.g., most white-collar jobs). If it involves what I call the three D’s – Data, Decisions, and a Desk – AI will affect it. And I think deep down, most intelligent people realize this.  

Now of course it won’t replace everyone (yet!) But what it will do is shrink departments and offices markedly. Here’s what I see: That twelve-person department or location? It’ll be reduced to about three or four people using AI. Ouch. 

And remember something else when talking about AI: it’s not even three years old yet. Thinking it won’t get massively better is like looking at a 56k modem in 1998 and saying that was as fast as bandwidth could get.  

Now it begins 

Over the past few weeks, two headline-making companies have leaned into artificial intelligence in a big way: Salesforce and Fiverr. Salesforce slashed its customer support workforce from about 9,000 to 5,000 – eliminating roughly 4,000 roles – because its AI agents are now handling nearly half of customer interactions. 

Fiverr similarly cut roughly 250 employees (around 25-30% of its workforce) in what its CEO calls a “painful reset” to become an “AI-first” company. They will streamline their product, marketing, customer care, and internal operations using AI tools.  

The interesting part is they both just flat-out admitted “yeah, it’s AI”. So it’s happening already. 

These moves are dramatic, but they’re not isolated. They also reflect an accelerating trend: companies large and small are rethinking how work gets done, who needs to do it, and where AI can do more of it.  

For small businesses, which typically operate with tighter margins, fewer people, and way smaller bank accounts, the stakes are especially high. The question then becomes: How do you adopt AI in a responsible, human-centric way? And how do you manage the inevitable moment when AI may replace some employees? 

Practical advice for small businesses: adopting AI responsibly 

You don’t have the budget or organizational layers of Salesforce or Fiverr, but you do have agility, closer relationships with your people, and often more trust capital. Use those to your advantage. 

1. Start with small, high-impact experiments. Pick non-core but visible parts of your business where AI can help (e.g., customer support; email drafting; scheduling; basic data entry or analytics). Buy the AI writing assist add-on. See how that works. Gradually expand. Avoid wholesale replacement of people without trial runs. 

2. Involve employees early. Let staff know AI is coming, solicit their input on where repetitive, time-consuming work drains their bandwidth. Use their insight to pick areas to automate. And wherever possible, give people the option to retrain or move into higher-value roles. 

3. Focus on augmentation, not just automation. The best AI use-cases help employees do their jobs better, freeing them from mundane work so they can spend time on strategy, customer relationships, creative or higher-impact tasks. That helps preserve morale, and it retains the human advantages (judgment, empathy, creativity) that AI still lacks. 

When “AI may replace some employees” becomes a reality 

Listen, many of your people are already wondering when (not if) this is coming. How you handle that moment will define not only financial outcomes, but your culture, your reputation, and even your long-term viability. Here are tips for walking that line: 

• Don’t wait until full displacement is obvious: If you see that an AI is routinely outperforming humans in a task, it’s time to embrace it. Workers generally know when their days are numbered professionally. Waiting usually means the blow is bigger. 

• Treat transitions as generously and responsibly as possible: With small businesses, how you treat people matters a great deal. Be generous as much as you can with severance, assistance, and/or job-search help. If you can move people into new roles or retrain them, that’s a win for everyone. A good opening strategy is offering buyouts. Perhaps you have a few older workers who would happily take a buyout, which could free up roles for those about to be displaced.  

• Reinvest where possible: Savings from automation should help you invest in other areas – better tools, training, product innovation, customer service – that keep you competitive. Don’t let cost-cutting become the only goal. Cutting people and pocketing the savings is never looked upon well.  

Why being humane about AI isn’t just the right thing  –  it’s smart business 

There’s a reason small businesses that emphasize employee wellness typically outperform those that do not. Employee morale matters. Customers notice how you treat people. Word-of-mouth matters. Over time, handling layoffs poorly, or automating blindly, erodes trust and can undermine the very agility AI is supposed to deliver. 

If Salesforce and Fiverr are any indication, the future is here. The question isn’t if AI will reshape your workforce; it’s how you will reshape with it. Those who do it thoughtfully will preserve more than profit: they’ll preserve character.