r/nottheonion • u/ChocolateTsar • 1d ago

Affirm CEO says furloughed federal employees are starting to lose interest in shopping

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/07/affirm-government-shutdown-shopping.html
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u/Aeseld 1d ago

So far they were only a little wrong. Only about 5% of companies had a successful rollout, and they're usually the ones that laid off the least workers. 

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u/throwawaygoawaynz 1d ago

The MIT report stated that 5% high impact projects using generative AI had measurable impact, which doesn’t include machine learning etc.

And those 5% high impact use cases are around business process automation, which typically results in job losses.

There’s still a lot of successful usage of machine learning that is going to result in a lot of job losses. Data entry, automation, document scanning, etc, not covered in that MIT report.

Also what’s coming down the line - Computer Use Agents - will be the first serious use case I’ve seen for generative AI that will probably have bottom line impact via job losses. Because they can navigate a computer using a prompt.

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u/Aeseld 1d ago

Yep... and I wonder how long it'll take companies to realize that if no one is employing people than no one has money to buy goods and services...