Detroit automakers have cut over 20,000 U.S. salaried jobs as AI looms
The former General Motors headquarters inside the Renaissance Center in Detroit, April 15, 2024.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT — As artificial intelligence expands, it threatens to worsen a growing trend for America’s largest automakers: the elimination of white-collar workers.
The “Detroit Three” automakers have shed more than 20,000 U.S. salaried jobs, or 19% of their total workforce, from their last employment peaks this decade, according to the companies’ public filings and employment data.
The reasons for the layoffs vary by automaker, but are generally tied to technological changes evolving in the automotive industry with the rise of software-defined vehicles, autonomous and all-electric vehicles, and more recently, artificial intelligence.
“AI will replace literally half of white-collar workers in the United States,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in July. Aspen Ideas Festival. “AI will leave many white-collar people behind,” he later added.
The cuts were led by the largest American automaker. General Engines The number of salaried employees in the United States decreased by nearly 11,000 people from 2022 to last year. These layoffs come after GM announced a rapid increase in employment, from 48,000 U.S. white-collar workers in 2020 to 58,000 in 2022.
Ford Motor and parent of Chrysler Stellantis We cut things more gradually. Ford cut roughly 5,300 jobs since its salaried employment peak in 2020, to about 30,700 white-collar workers last year; Stellantis, on the other hand, grew from 15,000 salaried employees in 2020 to approximately 11,000 during this period.
On an annual basis, the three automakers’ total white-collar employment peaked at nearly 102,000 jobs in 2022. As of the end of last year, it fell by 13% to 88,700 people.
GM IT layoffs
Gad Levanon, chief economist at the workforce data market nonprofit Burning Glass Institute, said he believes the jobs most at risk of being replaced by AI are more repetitive office jobs, such as finance and information technology, including clerical work and coding.
“Many white-collar workers will lose their jobs because AI can automate some tasks,” he said, adding that some losses will be offset by jobs in areas that are increasingly important to automakers, such as autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity and software-defined vehicles. “I think this will be a major trend over the next decade or two.”
GM ramps up cuts by laying off workers this week Between 500 and 600 salaried workers worldwide, largely at information technology operations in Texas and Michigan, spoke anonymously about details that were not publicly disclosed, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. These cuts are due in part to changing workforce needs involving artificial intelligence, sources said.
GM’s layoffs come as the automaker increasingly hires for AI-related jobs and encourages employees, including in IT, to adopt AI platforms, according to a handful of current or former GM employees and the company’s hiring website.
“They’re going to push AI for day-to-day tasks and everything else,” a veteran programmer and data scientist at GM who was laid off this week told CNBC, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions or effects on potential future jobs. “I’ve seen this firsthand. It can make you much more productive as a programmer. It can really help you get more done, but if you don’t know the job, AI won’t do you any good.”
Mary Barra, president and chief executive officer of General Motors Co., speaks at the grand opening of General Motors global headquarters at Hudson’s Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Prior to the IT reductions, significant reductions in GM’s U.S. salaried workforce occurred as a result of the demise and eventual demise of the Cruise robotaxi business, as well as ongoing evaluations of the company’s workforce under GM CEO Mary Barra.
“Sometimes the people who get you to ‘Point A’ aren’t necessarily the people who will get you to ‘Point B,'” Barra said of the turnover in the automaker’s top ranks at an Automotive Press Association meeting in January.
GM, Ford and Stellantis have declined to comment on declines in U.S. white-collar workers in recent years.
Automakers have previously cited “transformations,” “bold choices,” cost-cutting and “reinforcement,” or making a unit more efficient, as reasons for layoffs.
Help Wanted
The decline in salaried jobs at the Detroit Three is not fully representative of the overall U.S. auto industry.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics It reported that motor vehicle manufacturing jobs fell just 0.2% from 2022 to last year, to 285,800 workers. This data includes both salaried and hourly employees.
And not all automakers are cutting paying jobs in the United States. Toyota Motor It reported that the white-collar workforce in America increased by nearly 31% from 2020 to 2025, to about 47,500 people.
Ford, GM and Stellantis are also still hiring for some roles.
Ford CEO Jim Farley listens to Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, U.S. Representative Lisa McClain (R-MI), U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and U.S. President Donald Trump during the announcement of new fuel economy standards in the Oval Office at the White House on December 3, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, who is leading a companywide transformation that includes a global cost-cutting program, said the company still plans to add more than 2,000 white-collar jobs in North America.
Detroit automakers currently have more than 2,000 open positions in the United States, according to job sites. Nearly 400 of the jobs advertised involve artificial intelligence; GM is seeking more than 250 AI-related positions. Based on search results.
Lenny LaRocca, leader of consulting firm KPMG’s automotive practice in the Americas, said automakers need to be careful about how they execute their AI strategies with workers.
“They really need to think about how to adapt that and use that to produce to be more efficient and more profitable,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s just to reduce headcount. I think the focus is more on how they can do their job better and how they can be more innovative and move faster.”
Job roles are rapidly evolving with AI and requiring new skills, according to a recent post from Gregory Emerson, managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group.
BCG estimates that five years from now, or perhaps further into the future, 10 percent to 15 percent of U.S. jobs could disappear as AI proliferates, while 50 percent to 55 percent of U.S. jobs will be reshaped by AI in the next two to three years.
“This shift is already happening and will accelerate as the adoption of artificial intelligence spreads,” Emerson wrote in the co-authored report. “Those who reduce the workforce to the point that AI cannot replace it will see productivity decline, institutional knowledge disappear, and critical capabilities disappear. Those who fail to dramatically rethink business will see their competitors grow faster and more profitably.”
