Good Morning Reader it's Maria,

Something happened at the end of last month that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

On the 31st of March (just before Easter), thousands of Oracle employees woke up to an email. It arrived at 6 am and was signed "Oracle Leadership." No manager, no phone call... just a message telling them their access had been revoked and today was their last working day. Some of those people had been there for decades, and one woman was 30 weeks pregnant.

That email could have been written by AI. For all intents and purposes, it might as well have been.

It didn't have to be that way.

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THE BIG IDEA

Let's be clear about what's happening in the tech sector right now. Oracle has begun one of the largest restructurings in its history. Major outlets are reporting thousands of job losses, with analysts at TD Cowen floating figures of up to 30,000, though Oracle itself has not confirmed a global number. The cuts are tied directly to an aggressive and debt-heavy AI infrastructure expansion that needs billions in freed-up cash flow to fund it.

AI is the reason given. But let's call it what it is. Oracle posted a 95% jump in net income last quarter. This is not a company in trouble; these are people being cut to fund shareholders and bonuses.

That's a choice, and it's a choice being made across the sector.

IBM tells a more complicated story. It has invested seriously in reskilling, rebuilt HR functions around AI, and plans to triple US entry-level hiring in 2026. But IBM also confirmed layoffs at the end of 2025, affecting a low single-digit percentage of its roughly 270,000-person workforce. The honest version of IBM's story is a rebalancing act. Better than most, not perfect, but at least asking a different question.

Then there's Klarna. The CEO has spoken publicly about letting headcount reduce through natural attrition, people leaving, retiring, or moving on, while pausing most new recruitment. No mass terminations, a slower, more human transition.

These are companies all navigating the same AI moment. The difference is the values they're applying to it.

Marcus Buckingham, researcher, bestselling author and one of the most credible voices on human performance at work, posted a rewrite of the Oracle email on LinkedIn last week. But with empathy, clear practical support, and signed by an actual human being rather than a corporate alias. His point was simple: even when the decision is made, how you deliver it is still a choice.

The companies that will come out of this strongest are the ones asking a different question entirely. Not "what can AI replace?" but "what can AI unlock?" Because there is always a part of the job that AI cannot do: The relationship, the judgment, the conversation where someone feels heard rather than processed.

And one more thing worth saying. Some of these companies will be quietly rehiring for similar roles within the year, once they realise what they lost. They always do...

This is what happens when you treat people as a line on a P&L.

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THE ACTION STEP

If you're a business owner thinking about where AI fits, here's a more useful frame than "who can I replace?"

Pick on​
​e role or one process

Not the whole business. Just one thing that feels slow, repetitive, or like it eats more time than it should.

Split it into three columns

What does this involve that AI could genuinely assist with? What does it involve that AI cannot touch: relationships, judgment, context, trust? What could this person do more of if the repetitive parts were lifted?

Now make a decision based on that picture

Can you redeploy this person's energy rather than remove it? In most cases, the answer is yes. You're not just being kind. You're being smart.

This is the thinking I take clients through in an AI readiness audit. It sounds simple, but most people haven't done it.

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AI MADE SIMPLE

Here's a prompt that walks you through exactly that process. Copy it into Claude or ChatGPT and fill in the blanks:

"I want to review the role of [job title or process] in my business. Help me map out: (1) which parts of this role could be assisted or automated by AI tools available today, (2) which parts genuinely require human judgement, relationships, or contextual knowledge that AI can't replicate, and (3) what this person could do more of, or differently, if the automatable tasks were handled by AI. I want to think about this as a growth question, not a cost-cutting one."

To make it even more accurate, you can add the person's job description and any other information you might have about their role (as we know, not everything sits in the job description).

Run it. Then sit with the output before you make any decisions. The point isn't to get an answer. It's to ask a better question than the one most companies are currently asking.

That's all for today Reader

Have a great weekend!👋🏼

Take Care

Maria

PS: If you want to explore what working together looks like, book a free call

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