A new survey by consulting firm Mercer has found that 99% of executives expect artificial intelligence to lead to at least some job losses within the next two years.
The findings were part of Mercer’s 2026 Global Talent Trends survey, which included responses from 825 C-suite leaders and 1,650 HR leaders.
The survey also found that 98% of executives are planning organisational design changes over the same period as companies increasingly adopt AI and automation technologies.
Only 32% of CEOs surveyed said they believed companies could currently combine human and machine worker capabilities in an optimal way. However, 63% said redesigning work around AI and automation would generate the highest returns.
The report comes as several major companies continue workforce reductions linked to AI adoption. Meta recently laid off 8,000 employees and reassigned another 7,000 workers to AI-related initiatives. Companies including Amazon, Pinterest, and Dow have also indicated that artificial intelligence played a role in recent layoffs.
The findings contrast with recent remarks by OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who said AI had not caused the level of white-collar job losses many had feared.
Speaking virtually at a Commonwealth Bank of Australia conference in Sydney earlier this month, Altman said he had expected greater disruption to entry-level white-collar jobs by now but was “delighted” to be wrong.
Altman said he had realised there remained a “human part” of many jobs that AI could not replace. He added that although he had previously used AI to respond to Slack and email messages, he had returned to answering some personally.
The Mercer survey also comes as consumer enthusiasm around AI appears mixed. A recent JPMorgan report found no major increase in AI usage at workplaces or in households, with only 12.6% of respondents reporting daily AI use last week, up two percentage points from a year earlier.