Employee Survival Guide® - Unmasking AI Washing: How to Safeguard Your Career Amid Corporate Deception and Layoff Tactics

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Comment on the Show by Sending Mark a Text Message.Are you aware that some companies are using the guise of artificial intelligence to mask layoffs and create a false sense of innovation? In this eye-opening episode of the Employee Survival Guide®, Mark Carey delves into the alarming trend of "AI washing," a corporate strategy that exaggerates the role of AI in the workplace while often laying the groundwork for job cuts. This tactic has become increasingly prevalent as organizations grapple with economic pressures in the wake of the pandemic, leaving employees in a precarious position.Mark sheds light on how companies may blame job losses on AI capabilities that simply don’t exist, leaving employees feeling vulnerable and confused. As an employee, recognizing the signs of AI washing is crucial for your career survival. Mark provides red flags to look out for, such as vague AI announcements coinciding with layoffs or sudden shifts in performance reviews that emphasize AI fluency. Understanding these tactics can empower you to navigate the complexities of modern employment and advocate for your rights.Throughout the episode, Mark emphasizes the importance of documenting your work and understanding your legal rights to challenge biased outcomes stemming from AI-driven decisions. Knowledge is power, and being informed about employment law can be your best defense against workplace discrimination, including age, race, and gender discrimination. Whether you’re facing a hostile work environment or navigating potential retaliation, Mark offers practical strategies to protect yourself in a rapidly evolving job landscape.From becoming proficient in AI tools to building a robust professional network, this episode is packed with actionable insights that can help you thrive amidst uncertainty. Mark also discusses financial preparedness for potential job loss, ensuring that you have a plan in place for severance negotiation and navigating employment contracts. If you’re seeking to enhance your career development and protect your employment rights, this episode serves as a vital survival manual.Join us for this essential discussion on the Employee Survival Guide® and equip yourself with the knowledge and skills necessary to survive and thrive in today’s challenging work environment. Don’t let AI washing dictate your career path—take charge of your future and become an empowered employee ready to face whatever comes your way! If you enjoyed this episode of the Employee Survival Guide please like us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We would really appreciate if you could leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leaving a review will inform other listeners you found the content on this podcast is important in the area of employment law in the United States. For more information, please contact our employment attorneys at Carey & Associates, P.C. at 203-255-4150, www.capclaw.com.Disclaimer: For educational use only, not intended to be legal advice.

Hey, it's Mark here and welcome to the next edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where I tell you, as always, what your employer does definitely not want you to know about. And a lot more. Hey, it's Mark. Welcome back to the Employee's Survive Guide. Podcast that arms you with no-b-s-straties. You need to protect your career, your paycheck, and your sanity in today's cutthroat workplace. Today we're tackling one of the most sneakiest corporate tactics I've ever seen in my years of litigating.

It's called AI washing. If you ever heard your CEO suddenly drop lines like, we're becoming an AI, first company right before layoff rumors start swirling. Buckle up. This episode is your survival manual. By the end, you'll know exactly what AI washing is, how it's being weaponized for terminations, the red flags to watch for,

and most importantly, the concrete steps to make sure you're not the one getting washed away. Let's dive in. First, the definition, AI washing. What is it? It's the business world version of what's called greenwashing. Companies slap the AI logo on everything, products, processes, even layoff announcements to look like cutting edge and innovative or

efficient when the actual AI involvement is minimal, non-existent, or years away from being useful. It was coined back in 2019 by the AI Now Institute and regulators are already cracking down. The SEC has fined investment firms hundreds of thousands of dollars for lying about using AI in their services, but here's the part that hits you in the wallet. In 2025, in 2006, companies started using AI washing as cover. for mass terminations. Open AI CEO Sam Altman himself called it out just days ago. Quote, there's some AI watching where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, and then there's some real displacement by AI of different kinds of jobs. According to J. Challenger,

Gray and Christmas, over 54,000 U.S. layoffs in 2025 alone were publicly blamed on AI. That sounds scary until you realize experts say that technology isn't mature enough to replace most of the most of those roles yet. Many of these cuts were really about correcting pandemic era overhiring, squeezing margins or plain old cost cutting. AI just became the perfect PR-friendly scapegoat. Your company might be firing people and calling it AI transformation because it sounds better than quote, we messed up our hiring and now we need to save money. Let's name names because you need to see the pattern of behavior that corporations are currently playing. This is on laid off 14,000 employees in October 2025 and another six.

16,000 January, 2006. Internal memos hyped AI enabling faster innovation and the need to be organized more leanly. The CEO Andy Jassy walked it back saying it's not really AI driven its culture. So he had to walk those words back. Salesforce slash customer support rolls from 9,000 to 5,000 with a CEO bragging about AI agents doing the work and wanting a lesser headcount. which PCEO announced 6,000 cuts over the next a few years, explicitly tied to AI boosting productivity. Dualingo went AI first with contractors. Klarna projected cutting a third of its workforce by 2030 because of AI. The pattern, big AI announcement, vague efficiency claims, and pink slips.

There you go. Then in some cases, rehiring months after, because AI couldn't actually deliver, so the companies had to rehire those folks, which actually you've been reading about in the papers. Here's your personal radar. If you hear three or one, more of these start updating your resume and possibly contacting an employment lawyer like myself. Number one, sudden AI first or AI powered town halls with zero technical details or demos. Number two, layoff rumors hitting right after an earnings call with the CEO name drops AI three times.

Number three, performance reviews now mysteriously include AI fluency and willingness to adopt new tools with no training provided. We're starting to see that a lot, folks, so be on the lookout about that topic. Number four, department's budget for AI tools gets cut while headcount is frozen. Number five, leadership uses budget words like synergistic AI augmentation. Who makes this shit up? I mean, honestly, instead of explaining what the AI actually does. HR suddenly rolls out an AI-driven performance software with no transparency and how decisions are made. That one you need to pay attention to because when you're starting to see that happen in your workplace,

an AI-driven performance software, essentially your review being done that way, be on the lookout that something is clearly a miss here, and AI washing might be taking place. If it smells like marketing spend, trust it probably is. So there's your radar. So what can you do about it? That's what you always rely upon me to give you some pointers. I'm always researching this issue. That's AI washing is a new issue. We're seeing it happen. We see it happen in the employer's response to our demand letters, where we are, I actually have a current case where there's an AI focused company. They actually use AI washing language. They're not a SEC reporting company. I'm sure that they want to be, at least the CEO wants to.

And they are spinning everything regarding this pregnancy case we have, where the CEO made some pretty dramatic statements about a pregnancy, about how people want to get pregnant. It's not their place to work at that company. So it's pretty shameful behavior, and they try to smooth it over with this whole AI washing explanation. I kind of laughed at the response by the defense counsel, but it exists, and you need to be aware of it.

Employers are trying to put anything under that. big old AI washing rug they can. Move number one, what you can do is become faster, meaner, more literate about AI than you can before it washes you out. Don't wait for the company training, spend maybe 30 minutes a day, master the tools that actually exist, be what's called a power user, an AI power user. So learn everything possible. And then use it in your workday to become more effective and, you know, show your boss.

Take documentation that you're making these wins because you're being more. effective using it as a person. Build your own what called, you know, a human-only moat. AI sucks at empathy, flexed stakeholder management type of behavior, creative problem-solving, ethical judgment. AI can't do that just yet. It's just words on a screen. It can dump out material back at you. But double down and, you know, on those human aspects, which you can demonstrate your ability to, you know, where your potential or your value is a company, why they hired you in the first place. Make yourself irreplaceable in those gray areas. Number three, document everything like your job depends on it because it does these days.

I talk about documenting all the time. Keep a running brag file. Metrics emails, praising your work before and after, examples of your impact. If AI is used in performance scoring or layoffs selection, you may have grounds of challenge biased outcomes. I'll get that a second. Know your legal rights cold. If you have a mass layoff, you know, the warning notice is basically roughly 60 days in both states. If AI was used in a determination decision, you have a right to under certain emerging laws

and EOC guidance and state law to know what data was fed into the model and request a human review. You might find out there's AI bias, and there's the current litigation that's pending right now about AI bias in the AI software being used. Biased in AI tools can trigger discrimination claims. So especially protected characteristics were unintentionally weighted. It does happen, folks. There's humans who are coding these AI algorithms, and they're feeding the information into it. So bias and bias out.

And number five, network like it's 2009. Your internal network is about to shrink because it's going to reconnect with five former colleagues or LinkedIn contacts every week. Try to build your network stronger. The larger network so you can land a job faster in the event that you're terminated for AI disturbance. Create your own personal runway. You need funds to survive if you are laid off.

So, you know, gathered together six or nine months of cash. Don't sacrifice it. You'll need it. Number seven, if you have an extra strategy, get one. If you don't have one, get one. Update your resume today with quantifiable wins, tailor those wins to the roles you're looking at. Number five, the mindset shift.

Real AI will change jobs. Of course it will. But companies that AI wash today are often the ones who will be desperately rehiring humans tomorrow when the tech fall short because it will. I mean, there's no one out there saying it's 100% positive, although we are all acting like it. Your job is not the fear AI, your job is to ride the wave.

If you use it, master it, make yourself an employee who can make AI look good. So with that, focus on the realities of AI here, it's being used to cut you, you know, to evaluate you, to review your performance and also to determine it you. And you need to be aware of how you can combat that. And, you know, it's not, you can build a case for discrimination of many types. You can build a case of whistleblowing, retaliation. You need to document things. And that's how you arm yourself against this, you know, this huge wave.

happening in our workforce today. So with that, thank you for letting be a service and talk to you soon. Hey, it's Mark, and thank you for listening to this episode of the Employees FI-E-Gide. If you'd like to be interviewed for our podcast and share your story about what you're going through at work and do so anonymously, please send me an email at M-C-R-E-Y at C-A-P-C-C-Law.com. And also, if you like this podcast episode and others like it, please leave us a review. It really does help others find this podcast. So leave a review on Apple or spot-on. or wherever you listen to this podcast. Thank you very much. And I'm glad to be a service to you.