A company didn’t announce layoffs—it announced a product.
Global HR and payroll services provider Deel launched Akai in May, a workflow automation platform made up of multiple agents. It first ran finance, tax, payments, benefits, and HR processes in the company itself. Only after the results were good enough did it put the system up for sale. Products like this sell processes, not single tools. What customers buy back is a set of job responsibilities that can be replaced.
One of the outcomes is cited again and again: the system reduces demand for roughly six hundred roles. That figure is mentioned repeatedly because it converts abstract efficiency into concrete headcount.
What the product can do now is automatically handle more than 100,000 cases each month, saving about 91,000 work-hours. It also doesn’t require developer involvement. The operations team can build and deploy it on its own, and users have expanded from the technical department to the operations department.
Putting these two statements together helps explain why its marketing emphasis is on efficiency rather than layoffs. Cutting roles is packaged as software capability, which makes it easier for customers to accept and easier for both sides to “balance the books.” For buyers, it’s a worthwhile deal; for sellers, it turns internal efficiency into external revenue.
Layoffs-by-another-name isn’t what they call it—and it’s usually priced higher.
#人工智能 #就业
Global HR and payroll services provider Deel launched Akai in May, a workflow automation platform made up of multiple agents. It first ran finance, tax, payments, benefits, and HR processes in the company itself. Only after the results were good enough did it put the system up for sale. Products like this sell processes, not single tools. What customers buy back is a set of job responsibilities that can be replaced.
One of the outcomes is cited again and again: the system reduces demand for roughly six hundred roles. That figure is mentioned repeatedly because it converts abstract efficiency into concrete headcount.
What the product can do now is automatically handle more than 100,000 cases each month, saving about 91,000 work-hours. It also doesn’t require developer involvement. The operations team can build and deploy it on its own, and users have expanded from the technical department to the operations department.
Putting these two statements together helps explain why its marketing emphasis is on efficiency rather than layoffs. Cutting roles is packaged as software capability, which makes it easier for customers to accept and easier for both sides to “balance the books.” For buyers, it’s a worthwhile deal; for sellers, it turns internal efficiency into external revenue.
Layoffs-by-another-name isn’t what they call it—and it’s usually priced higher.
#人工智能 #就业
