A business development leader at the Bermuda Clarity Institute remains steadfast in his assertion that there will be huge shifts in the workforce as a result of the development of artificial intelligence, especially as more people begin to understand its relevance.

The comments came as a company that promises to help companies manage all aspects of their workforce has had to lay off a portion of its own staff.

Workday, the cloud-based software vendor that specialises in human capital management among other things, is designed to help organisations manage their workforce and financial data more efficiently.

But the company said recently that it was cutting 1,750 jobs, or 8.5 per cent of its current workforce, because it was countering a softer macroeconomic environment by investing in – you guessed it – artificial intelligence.

The California-based company helps other firms to manage payroll, benefits, human resources and employee data but is now investing heavily in a future of artificial intelligence opportunities.

The firm is one of many giants to lay off thousands of staff members in the past three months, for similar reasons, including Salesforce and Amazon.

The news comes two months after AI educator Stuart Lacey of BCI said that AI would not steal jobs; but those people who were AI-savvy would.

“I am sticking to that opinion 100 per cent,” Mr Lacey told The Royal Gazette.

Workday chief executive Carl Eschenbach said the lay-offs were necessary to prioritise investments such as AI, while also freeing up resources to expand the company's presence in different countries.

Mr Lacey said: “Their cost compression is due to market forces and crowded industry, not AI replacement cycles. They wish to pivot those savings into an AI push, which means positive sentiment for use of AI and AI-enabled teams and people.”

Reuters said the lay-offs came at a time when the human capital management industry had grappled with slower spending by enterprise clients as high interest rates had pressured tech budgets.

Just over a year ago, Workaday had about 18,800 employees.

Back in November, Amazon announced sweeping lay-offs in its Alexa voice assistant unit, saying the reason was a change in business priorities and increasing focus on generative AI.

According to statistics from the website Genius, AI could replace one in five jobs by 2050, with 300 million positions affected worldwide.

A recent Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum said 41 per cent of companies around the world planned to reduce their workforces by 2030 because of AI. To compile the report the WEF surveyed hundreds of large businesses globally.

“Advances in AI and renewable energy are reshaping the market, driving an increase in demand for many technologies or specialised positions while driving a decline for others, such as graphic designers,” the WEF stated in mid-January.

The report named postal service clerks, bank tellers and data entry positions as the fastest declining job areas, while it listed big data specialists, fintech engineers and AI and machine-learning specialists as the fastest growing jobs.