Layoffs due to AI have dominated headlines this year.
Employers cited AI as the main reason for about 40% of job cuts announced in May 2026, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
But new research suggests some employers may be rethinking layoffs and pivoting toward what experts are increasingly calling an “AI rebound.”
In a recent report from talent acquisition and management firm SHL, which surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. workers, nearly 1 in 5 respondents said they were asked to come back after being laid off or replaced by AI. The survey was carried out by SHL and commissioned by market research firm Propeller Insights, and surveyed more than 1,000 UK workers. It was conducted from June to July 2026 and had a margin of error of 5%.
Lucy Beaumont, SHL’s global senior vice president of products and design, said these findings show that companies are realizing they “pulled the plug on human employees too soon.”
Several major employers, including Ford and Amazon, have reversed course after implementing AI-related job cuts over the past year. A March report from Orgvue found that 32% of organizations that fired employees were forced to rehire them because of AI.
Joseph Fuller, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, said it would be a mistake for companies to approach implementing AI like deploying any other software.
From a company’s perspective, “You have to find some savings in your budget to invest in new technology. And the way we’ve done that in the past with technology implementations has been to lay off people.”
But AI is most useful when it works with human employees’ “contextual intelligence,” or background knowledge and understanding of the problem. “The more you know about your critical processes, the more value you can extract from AI,” he says.
AI can’t completely replace “people who know the business, who know the customer, who are judgmental, who bring empathy, who have that human connection,” Beaumont said.
Returning workers have new demands
SHL’s research shows that most workers are willing to return after being laid off. According to the SHL survey, only 6.6% of U.S. workers say they would refuse to return to work under any circumstances.
But those who do return “will be more demanding in their expectations from their employers,” Beaumont said.
According to the SHL survey, nearly half of U.S. workers surveyed said they would need a significant pay increase to return to work, and 43% wanted “written guarantees” about job security. A similar number, 40%, requires “full transparency” about how AI will be used in the job before re-entering the workforce. Additionally, 30% of employees say an apology or recognition from their leader is an important condition for their return.
Above all, employees want to feel safe, Beaumont said. “How do we know something like this won’t happen again?”
Even if workers return, Beaumont said, employers need to understand that internal morale will take a hit. Being fired “fundamentally changes” the psychological contract between employer and employee, she says, and being rehired isn’t enough to repair that relationship.
“You really broke the trust with those people,” Beaumont says.
As a result, returning workers are unlikely to have the same levels of “productivity and engagement” they had before being laid off, she says. “Culture is very difficult to change, and once you have a negative impact, it is very difficult to recover from it.”
What skills should workers practice?
Beaumont says employees are prioritizing skill development to stay ahead in the job market. U.S. survey respondents say they are teaching themselves how to use AI tools (44%), developing industry-specific skills that cannot be easily replicated by AI (42.6%), working on interpersonal and leadership skills (40%), and honing their creative and strategic thinking (38%).
Given how quickly AI capabilities will grow, Fuller says the most important skill for employees to develop is adaptability. He urges employees to practice working with AI regularly and “look for opportunities” to improve their technology skills.
Workers also need to get used to change, he says. In the near future, Fuller predicts that AI will cause “permanent disruption” within many organizations as they continue to readjust their staffing needs to AI advances.
Beaumont recommends that workers identify the areas where their unique skills have the most impact. “If AI takes away some of the tasks that can easily be automated, what is left for me and how can I optimize the human side that I can bring?”
Leaders need to focus on questions such as “What upskilling do people need? What new opportunities will they have? What internal mobility will be opened up as a result of AI?” she says.
Successful organizations, Beaumont says, are those that “use AI to optimize operations,” not just to reduce costs.
