GM JUST FIRED 600 IT WORKERS — REPLACING THEM WITH AI-FLUENT STAFF General Motors has laid off more than 600 salaried IT employees — more than 10 percent of its entire IT department — and made clear this is not about cutting costs. It is about swapping out a workforce that built old systems for one that can build with AI. The company said explicitly it plans to hire people with stronger AI skills to replace them. This is the corporate AI transition moving from abstract boardroom strategy into actual paychecks being cut. GM is one of the largest employers in the United States, and when a company that size starts doing skills-based layoffs tied to AI adoption, other companies take notice and follow. This is not isolated. IBM has been doing this quietly for years. Deutsche Bank, Accenture, and dozens of large employers have announced similar shifts. The debate researchers have been running for years — will AI destroy jobs or simply shift them — is getting answered in real time. So far the answer looks more like: it shifts them, but not for the people who held the old ones. The 600 workers let go at GM almost certainly did not have the time or resources to retrain for the roles now replacing theirs. That is the real story here. The AI workforce transition is accelerating whether or not workers are prepared for it. Keywords: GM AI layoffs, artificial intelligence jobs 2026, AI workforce displacement, GM IT layoffs