[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Starbucks fired its AI. According to a recent Forbes report, Starbucks quietly withdrew a computer vision-based automated inventory management system from more than 11,000 stores. The AI system miscounted inventory and, instead of resolving shortages, made them worse. Employees returned to manual work.

Forbes said that as companies replace people with AI, they are also removing AI that cannot replace people, adding that Starbucks' move is highly suggestive.

Meta recently laid off 8,000 people to secure funding for AI investment. Intuit is cutting its workforce by 17 percent. Oracle, Amazon, Cisco and Atlassian have also announced large-scale layoffs. Those targeted are knowledge workers who were regarded as relatively stable.

Against this backdrop, companies are complaining of a shortage of talent who can handle AI tools in practical work. Forbes pointed out: "Companies themselves are eliminating entry-level positions where such capabilities can grow. If there are fewer entry-level workers, there are fewer mid-level workers, and if there are fewer mid-level workers, the pool of leadership candidates thins."

Companies cutting staff are also creating jobs that did not exist 3 years ago, including AI product managers, agent orchestration leads and model evaluation specialists.

But because most of the new roles require 3 to 5 years of experience using AI, Forbes reported that the structure prevents people who lose their jobs from moving into newly created positions.