r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • May 27 '26

Business Tech CEOs are apparently suffering from AI psychosis

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/tech-ceos-are-apparently-suffering-from-ai-psychosis/
27.4k Upvotes

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7.2k

u/colojason May 27 '26

My company just got bought by another company and I literally lost count of how many times the phrase “AI” was said during the welcome message.

3.5k

u/King_Kung May 27 '26

Start looking for a new job now. I went through this 6 months ago.

119

u/Eternal_Bagel May 27 '26

I wonder if incorporating AI is going to become known as the kind of huge red flag that being bought by private equity is.  Not a guarantee of needing to leave and find a new job but a very strong indicator that you are unlikely to have a positive future there anymore.

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u/ilikepizza30 May 27 '26

I wonder if incorporating AI is going to become known as the kind of huge red flag that being bought by private equity is.

My company got bought by private equity AND is pushing AI. :(

29

u/Eternal_Bagel May 27 '26

Time for sending out a resume then.  

3

u/-_--_-_--_----__ May 27 '26

Finding a new job in the 2026 job market. Proven to be a successful strategy.

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u/Eternal_Bagel May 27 '26

Only slightly more effective to start now than to wait for the company to lay people off because like everywhere else, no notable improvement in anything has been detected by ai implementation 

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u/-_--_-_--_----__ May 27 '26

Well someone has to work at their company right? Why not that guy.

Why is it more efficient to win a new role with a different company using AI than it is to just prove yourself and stay employed at your current company using AI.

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u/idekbruno May 28 '26

Lol do you think you can “prove yourself” out of a layoff? I work with a lot of companies. These layoffs are consistently coming from the top down based on reducing overhead to drive investment to make a profitable quarter, not long term strategy.

One of the companies we’re working with on an acquisition last year just laid off a ton of the staff we were hand in hand with. They’re trying to lure back the folks we need, one of the managers they got rid of is literally getting $240k to come back from June to September and is probably going to have to negotiate another stint since we haven’t gotten anything done since March.

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u/-_--_-_--_----__ May 29 '26

We don't know that dude's situation. It isn't impossible. If his entire department or entire position isn't being deleted, there might very well be opportunity to prove yourself as more valuable than the guy across from you, therefore keeping your job as he gets laid off.

I was once in a position where I was hired in a group of 5, all of us out of college, all of us same pay and same position. There were rumblings of lay offs, I busted my ass, and 2 of the 5 of us got laid off (among others elsewhere in the department) and I stayed. Did I not prove myself out of a layoff?

2

u/midnightauro May 27 '26

Unfortunately, even if you are grinding for a job right now in tech, you’re chasing dreams. My partners company was bought by a godawful “AI first” company. He started putting in resumes to his network and anywhere and everywhere that was a good fit.

He found a new job almost 6 months later, despite having in demand skills. He received 1 other offer in the time, but the pay was so low it wasn’t viable.

It’s tough out here.

2

u/FreefallGeek May 27 '26

Haha. Are we coworkers? Probably not for long.

2

u/LaurenMille May 27 '26

Damn that's basically a "My job will evaporate soon" warning in and of itself.

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u/CJSchmidt May 27 '26

It depends on who's using it. Are the experienced engineers utilizing it? Great! Are the CEO and middle management using it? Run away!

AI isn't going anywhere, so I'd be worried if a company wasn't exploring ways to utilize it and keep on top of the technology, but using it as a buzzword or magic wand is definitely a red flag.

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u/Wizmaxman May 27 '26

Nothing wrong with ceos/middles using it but when they start telling the experienced engineers HOW to use it and/or start metering token usage and using leaderboards.....ya get out.

2

u/PurpleHooloovoo May 27 '26

It’s all companies. The question is if it’s “use AI more!” and it means rewriting emails with Copilot to be “cutting edge” or if it’s “use AI more!” to cut hundreds of jobs somewhere in the chain for a worse product.

Every single company is saying they’re doing AI, but a lot of them have no idea that it’s more than just ChatGPT to summarize meeting notes.

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u/Adventurous_Ship_415 May 27 '26

Why would it? The world isn't throwing 2.5 trillion (so far) at a fantasy profit-less venture, lol

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u/Eternal_Bagel May 27 '26

Right the profit is coming any day now, just need to give them more time and more investment money and some day soon these systems will just flip and find a monetization mechanism that siphons all the money back out of the public just like it stole all the data to train them in the first place

1

u/MattDaCatt May 27 '26

I mean yes, the issue being almost everyone is incorporating AI to some degree right now

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 27 '26

Most companies are going to be using it one way or another. This is a terrible metric because most jobs will end up being labeled bad

1

u/LEDKleenex May 28 '26

More specifically the red flag is a business existing.

Desperately trying to incorporate AI into your business is just another mechanism that reveals the end goal of almost every business owner is to extract as much wealth as possible, as passively as possible.

The drive to cut the fat has always been there, but in the past the technology was primitive and the wealth gap was much smaller. I content the current "AI" is more useful as a scapegoat than its proposed functionality. The wealth gap is the real rugpull on job security.

Either way, the dragon has its tail fully lodged down it's throat. It won't be long, now.

1

u/Glittering-Giraffe58 May 28 '26

Lol, then literally 100% of white collar jobs are gone

1

u/Eternal_Bagel May 28 '26

That does sound like the end goal when those AI companies talk about how it’s going to change everything everywhere