Silicon Valley faces questions about AI and jobs.

At the HumanX conference, industry leaders urged workers to emphasize human skills even as multiple companies cite AI when announcing layoffs; the precise scale of job losses tied to AI remains undetermined.

At the HumanX conference in San Francisco, technology leaders spoke about how artificial intelligence is reshaping work while urging employees to lean on human skills such as critical thinking and communication. The four-day event drew about 6,500 investors, entrepreneurs and executives and featured a prominent advertisement reading "Stop hiring humans." Speakers noted that more companies are citing AI in public announcements about workforce reductions, but they did not provide a definitive count of jobs lost to AI. Key points: - Conference speakers described widespread executive anxiety about AI's impact on employment and encouraged workers to develop human-centered skills. - The article reports that some companies have linked recent layoffs to AI, including Salesforce saying it cut 4,000 customer support roles and that AI handles roughly half of that work, and that Block announced plans to significantly reduce headcount while citing new "intelligence tools." - Several speakers and some economists warned that AI is sometimes used as an explanation for cuts tied to other business choices, and they emphasized that the full scope of AI-driven job displacement is currently undetermined. Summary: The HumanX discussions underscored growing concern among executives about how AI will change jobs and work processes, while also expressing caution about attributing all layoffs directly to the technology. Officials reported noticeable shifts in work practices but did not provide a clear tally of job losses solely caused by AI. Undetermined at this time.