Former Google CEO Schmidt: AI May Eliminate 20% of Jobs at Large Enterprises
Former Google CEO Schmidt said on a podcast that AI agents are expected to eliminate a large amount of coordination work at large enterprises, potentially cutting about 20% of positions, mainly targeting "glue employees" who do planning and data coordination. He noted that Cloudflare, despite 34% revenue growth, still announced in May this year that it would cut more than 1,100 positions, and its CEO said AI shortened the two-week preparation work of a team of about 20 people before earnings reports to three minutes.
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In a podcast episode aired this week, Schmidt noted while speaking with Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, that when employees' roles become unnecessary, companies must find a way to carry out the workforce transition in a "legal and humane" manner.
Schmidt believes that large enterprises waste a great deal of time coordinating work among employees, departments, and managers.
He recalled that during his time leading Google, he spent 12 hours a day attending various meetings. He believes that artificial intelligence (AI) agents have the potential to eliminate most of that coordination work.
He said companies will still need outstanding inventors, salespeople, leaders, and employees responsible for dealing with the government.
Schmidt mentioned a friend who cut 20% of the staff while the company's business was growing rapidly.
Schmidt said these layoffs targeted so-called "glue employees"—those engaged in "some kind of planning work, responsible for allocating data." The executive later told him that he had received death threats.
Schmidt did not disclose the friend's name, but he mentioned that he had written about these layoffs in a newspaper article.
This description closely matches Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who wrote an article explaining the reasons for the company's layoffs.
Despite a 34% increase in revenue, Cloudflare still announced plans in May of this year to cut more than 1,100 jobs, a move that is part of the company's shift toward artificial intelligence (AI).
Prince described most of the laid-off employees as "measurers"—that is, employees responsible for management, compliance, and administrative work.
In an interview in September, Prince mentioned that there had previously been a team of about 20 people that needed two weeks to prepare investor-related documents before an earnings release. He said AI shortened this process to just three minutes.