Investors predict AI is coming for labor in 2026 

Considerations about how AI will have an effect on employees proceed to rise in lockstep with the tempo of developments and new merchandise promising automation and effectivity.

Proof means that worry is warranted.

A November MIT research discovered an estimated 11.7% of jobs may already be automated utilizing AI. Surveys have proven employers are already eliminating entry-level jobs due to the expertise. Corporations are additionally already pointing to AI as the rationale for layoffs.

As enterprises extra meaningfully undertake AI, some could take a more in-depth take a look at what number of staff they really want.

In a latest Trendster survey, a number of enterprise VCs mentioned AI can have a huge impact on the enterprise workforce in 2026. This was significantly fascinating as a result of the survey didn’t particularly ask about it.

Eric Bahn, a co-founder and normal companion at Hustle Fund, expects to see impacts on labor in 2026. He’s simply unsure precisely what that may seem like.

“I need to see what roles which have been identified for extra repetition get automated, or much more difficult roles with extra logic turn out to be extra automated,” Bahn mentioned. “Is it going to result in extra layoffs? Is there going to be larger productiveness? Or will AI simply be an augmentation for the present labor market to be much more productive sooner or later? All of this appears fairly unanswered, nevertheless it looks as if one thing massive goes to occur in 2026.”

Marell Evans, founder and managing companion at Distinctive Capital, predicted corporations seeking to improve AI spending, will pull cash from their pool for labor and hiring.

“I feel on the flip aspect of seeing an incremental improve in AI budgets, we’ll see extra human labor get reduce and layoffs will proceed to aggressively affect the U.S. employment price,” Evans mentioned.

Rajeev Dham, managing director at Sapphire, agreed that 2026 budgets will begin to shift sources from labor to AI. Jason Mendel, a enterprise investor at Battery Ventures, added that AI will begin to surpass simply being a instrument to make present employees extra environment friendly in 2026.

“2026 would be the 12 months of brokers as software program expands from making people extra productive to automating work itself, delivering on the human-labor displacement worth proposition in some areas,” Mendel mentioned.

Antonia Dean, a companion at Black Operator Ventures, mentioned even when corporations aren’t shifting labor budgets towards AI tasks, they’ll probably nonetheless say AI is the rationale for layoffs or a discount in labor prices anyway.

“The complexity right here is that many enterprises, regardless of how prepared or not they’re to efficiently use AI options, will say that they’re rising their investments in AI to elucidate why they’re slicing again spending in different areas or trimming workforces,” Dean mentioned. “In actuality, AI will turn out to be the scapegoat for executives seeking to cowl for previous errors.”

Many AI corporations argue their expertise doesn’t get rid of jobs however slightly helps shift employees to “deep work” or to higher-skilled jobs whereas AI simply automates repetitive “busy work.”

However not everybody buys that argument, and persons are apprehensive that their jobs will likely be automated. In line with VCs who put money into that space, it doesn’t sound like these fears will likely be quelled in 2026.