I work in a smaller tech company. As a senior leader, we've not replaced any of the employees who voluntarily left. We simply doubled down on using AI more and more.
If we are seeing this, surely big tech companies are also seeing it. I don't think they're that stupid.
Many companies are in industries where their growth is capped. No matter how many more employees they hire, they're not going to grow faster because the market conditions don't allow them to. The best way to generate more profits for them is to downsize while doing more or doing just as much. AI allows them to do that.
The laid off employees will go to companies where there is more growth potential.