More than 20,000 tech employees have already lost jobs so far in 2024, according to tracker layoffs.fyi.

Industry analysts predict that until 2024, layoffs in other sectors will likely persist as tech companies focus on recruiting more people and increasing their investments in artificial intelligence.

2024 has already seen the loss of almost 20,000 IT jobs, according to tracker layoffs. fyi.

While making reductions in non-strategic areas, Google and the other major tech companies are placing large bets on AI. Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives told CNBC that while Big Tech would continue to lay off employees in some sectors, there will be an extraordinary recruiting frenzy in the AI space as this arms race continues throughout the tech industry.

As the business continues to direct resources toward artificial intelligence, Google CEO Sundar Pichai forewarned staff members last week that there might be further layoffs this year.

In an email to staff members dated January 17, Pichai stated, “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year.” He also mentioned that management was preparing to disclose its AI goals and targets for 2024. Pichai stated that harsh decisions must be made to develop the capacity for this investment.

To increase productivity and concentrate on its “biggest product priorities,” Google cut hundreds of positions earlier this month. This was done to catch up to competitor Microsoft, who had incorporated ChatGPT into Bing search and forced Google to enhance its search engine with artificial intelligence (AI).

We no longer live in a world with zero interest rates. They now have to start looking for methods to save money so they can make this investment. AI deployment and training are quite costly. And that’s what I believe is going on with Google right now,” Big Technology CEO Alex Kantrowitz stated last week on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

On January 18, Kantrowitz stated, “I expect other Big Tech companies to follow that.”

The German enterprise software company SAP said on Tuesday that it will “increase its focus on key strategic growth areas, in particular, business AI in 2024” by reorganizing around 8,000 positions.

The business stated that by year’s end, staffing should remain the same and that internal reskilling initiatives and voluntary leave plans should cover the majority of the roughly 8,000 impacted roles.

Earlier this month, Amazon, which has been making significant investments in AI, fired hundreds of workers from its studio and video-streaming businesses. Additionally, Audible’s audiobook division and Twitch’s live streaming platform saw job cuts.

Mike Hopkins, the general manager of MGM Studios and Prime Video, stated that the company has found ways to cut down on or stop investing while stepping up its spending in other areas where it can make the biggest difference.

The cloud services division of the e-commerce behemoth, Amazon Web Services, announced on January 19 that it expected to invest 2.26 trillion yen, or $15.24 billion, in Japan by 2027 to build up the cloud computing infrastructure necessary for artificial intelligence services.

AWS was a latecomer to the generative AI competition, unveiling its massive language model Titan only months after Microsoft reportedly invested $13 billion in ChatGPT manufacturer OpenAI and Google unveiled AI chatbot Bard, even though it had solidified its position as the largest cloud provider globally.

Not just in technology are job losses occurring
Many corporations are also seeking to reduce staff to concentrate on their AI-driven ventures.

According to a regulatory filing made last week, Vroom, an online used-car marketplace located in the United States, proposes to liquidate its used-car dealership and concentrate on automotive financing and artificial intelligence services, which would result in the loss of roughly 800 jobs.

According to media reports earlier this month, Duolingo will lay off 10% of its contractors as the company transitions to employing artificial intelligence (AI) to develop material.

What [firms] would have done a few years ago would have been to hire away and not worry about where they had to make earlier cuts. However, Kantrowitz stated that was no longer the case.

Massive layoffs started in 2022 and continued until 2023 as consumers cut down on spending due to global macroeconomic headwinds like rising interest and inflation rates and uncertainty about the state of the world economy.