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AI is going to eliminate more jobs than it creates in the short-term. That’s the quiet consensus across roles and functions in the workforce, according to SmarterX’s 2026 State of AI for Business Report.
Seventy-one percent of professionals said more jobs will be eliminated by AI than created over the next three years, the report says. Just 13% expect net job creation.
The report surveyed more than 2,100 professionals on how they understand, adopt, and organize around AI.
What makes this finding so striking is how uniform the belief is: from the C-suite down to junior employees and across departments.
- CEOs and VPs came in at 73%
- Specialists at 64%.
- Marketing, engineering, sales, and operations all converge within a few points of the overall average.
Among marketers specifically, the share expecting net job elimination jumped 17 percentage points year over year — from 53% to 70% — the single largest shift the survey has recorded.
But here's where it gets interesting. Despite this widespread belief that jobs are on the line, only 20% of respondents say they're personally concerned about AI's impact on their own role. The workforce broadly expects disruption. They just don't think it will happen to them.
That disconnect matters. It shapes how people engage with AI initiatives, how urgently they invest in new skills, and how leaders need to communicate about what's ahead. A workforce that sees the disruption coming but assumes it will only hit other people, might not move fast enough to stay ahead of it.
Check Out the Full Report
This is just one data point from a report full of them. You can read and download the complete 2026 State of AI for Business Report for more insights on organizational readiness, training gaps, governance, and more.
