Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas faces backlash after saying 'AI layoffs are fine because people hate their jobs, anyway'

Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity AI CEO, is now under fire for advancing the opinion that people should embrace being replaced by artificial intelligence since they don’t like their jobs anyway. The co-founder of Perplexity further added  to the sardonic comment that the jarring shift in how work gets done will lead to a “glorious future” and everyone should be happy about.

“The reality is most people don’t enjoy their jobs,” the executive said on the All-In podcast, in an episode that was published Monday.

Listeners were quick to react to the controversial opinion and voice outrage. A leading voice among the critics argued that Srinivas was out of touch with everyday people who have been struggling to make ends meet after getting laid off.

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“A man worth millions just told the single mother who lost her job that she should be grateful because now she can start a business using his product and called her unemployment a glorious future,” one commenter wrote on X. “This is what happens when you’ve never needed a paycheck to keep the lights on.”

Recent months have been marred by a number of large companies announcing brutal layoffs. The likes of companies such as Amazon and Block have blamed AI for driving such massive changes.

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Companies planning major job cuts in 2026

As per a report by Business Insider, Amazon plans to eliminate around 16,000 corporate roles globally. This marks the second round of layoffs from the Bezos-led brand. Last year, the company eliminated close to 14,000 roles. The affected employees were greeted with a cold memo stating that Amazon wanted to cut back on bureaucracy within the company.

Citi Bank plans to cut more jobs this year, reducing its workforce by 10%. In a statement released on January 13, the bank said it would continue to reduce headcount in 2026. These plans were already established in the company’s 2024 earnings report.

Dell has decided to cut its workforce by 10% for the third year in a row. The tech giant revealed its plans in its annual filing with the SEC. As of January 31, 2026, the company had 97,000 employees, down from 111,000 in the same period last year.

Amid such times, Srinivas’s comments are far from the relief employees seek, especially given that he leads a tech company. Nevertheless, he had an army of supporters online. “He is kinda right though,” one user wrote. “A few years ago, one person couldn’t realistically run ops, marketing, support, and product all alone, but now they can – and some of them are making real numbers.”

A report released in February by Goldman Sachs economists said that AI was responsible for up to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in some domestic countries.

When asked for a comment on Tuesday, a Perplexity spokesperson told The Post: “Since Perplexity launched in December 2022, Americans have filed 16 million new business applications, contributing to the reversal of a 40-year decline and proving yet again that breakthrough technologies don’t eliminate opportunity they create it.”