Employers have cited artificial intelligence (AI) in more than twice as many US job cuts this year as in all of 2025. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, however, says workers are watching the wrong threat.

Cuban’s argument shifts the focus from the technology to the people using it. New hiring data and a Gallup survey suggest that shift matters for who gets hired and who gets laid off.

Cuban Puts the Job Risk on AI Skills

The anxiety has numbers behind it. US employers cited AI in 120,136 announced job cuts through September. That is about 21% of all cuts, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.

Cuban sees the threat differently and argued that the risk comes from other people.

“AI won’t take your job. Someone who knows how to use AI better than you, will take your job,” he said.

Survey data supports his view. Gallup found tech workers who used AI less than monthly faced 3 times the layoff risk of monthly users.

Overall, 62% of laid-off workers used AI once a year or less, compared with 50% of employed workers. Still, only 1% of laid-off workers named AI as the main cause.

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Annotators Lead a 750,000 AI Hiring Wave

AI has been the top reason for US layoffs this year, yet it is also creating jobs. The Kobeissi Letter, citing Wall Street Journal data, reported AI-linked roles added more than 750,000 US jobs since 2023.

The figures are based on LinkedIn estimates. Demand also shows up in listings, as AI job postings on LinkedIn rose 156% between 2024 and 2025.

Data annotators, who label material used to train AI models, lead the count with 282,000 positions. Data center jobs follow at 117,000, while AI engineers added 105,000.

“AI-related positions also offer significantly higher pay, with a median salary of ~$180,000 on LinkedIn, compared to $80,000 across all jobs,” the post added.

Box CEO Aaron Levie expects that demand to spread well beyond the tech sector.

“Every bank, life sciences company, manufacturer, and even law firm is bringing on more technical talent -or repositioning existing roles- to help with agent deployment in their companies,” he wrote.

Banks are also hiring for AI skills. Job postings that mention agent orchestration jumped 1,721% this year, according to hiring data firm Draup.

Still, overall hiring remains slow. Nonfarm payrolls rose 29,000 in September, and the unemployment rate reached 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.

The BLS releases its October jobs report on November 6. That data may show whether AI-linked hiring keeps growing while overall job gains stay slow.

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