Breaking Job News: America Reacts as AI Takes Over and 48,000 UPS Layoffs

Is AI really coming for our jobs or just rewriting them?

Today's Breaking Job News episode dives into three stories reshaping the modern workplace: a national survey revealing how Americans truly feel about AI, a billion-dollar company replacing nearly its entire sales team with an AI agent, and UPS slashing 48,000 jobs in a bid for efficiency.

Host Pete Newsome starts with our new AI Perception & Threat Survey, where employees say 45% of their work could be automated, and managers think it’s even higher. Fear exists, especially among Gen Z, but so does ambition: most workers say they’d switch jobs to gain better AI training or hands-on experience. The future of work, it turns out, may reward learning speed over job titles.

Then he breaks down how Vercel trained an AI on its top sales rep’s process, reducing a 10-person sales development team to one human and one bot. We explore how this model works, what tasks the AI now handles, and what this could mean for the next wave of white-collar automation.

Finally, Pete unpacks UPS’s 48,000 job cuts, a restructuring that signals a broader shift in logistics and labor strategy. What do these moves reveal about corporate priorities, and how can workers stay competitive as automation and efficiency collide?

If AI is redefining the workplace faster than ever, the question isn’t whether it’s coming for your job; it’s whether you’re ready to work alongside it.

News Articles:
1. Q4 2025 AI Perception and Threat in the Workplace Survey: https://www.4cornerresources.com/workplace-ai-perception-and-threat-survey-results/
2. Vercel Trained AI Agents Replace Sales Reps: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-agent-entry-level-sales-jobs-vercel-2025-10
3. UPS Cuts 48,000 Jobs: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/business/ups-layoffs-48000-workers-this-year.html

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Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:00):
Today's job market headlines include AI agents
replacing salespeople and a48,000-person downsizing at UPS.
But first, US workers believenearly half their job duties
could be replaced by AI.
This is according to an Octobersurvey where employees estimate
that 45% of what they do couldbe automated.
And among managers andexecutives specifically, the

(00:22):
number climbs even higher, allthe way to 56% of their
responsibilities, which isshocking to me since it shows
leaders realize their rolesaren't immune either.
Also, more than one in four fearAI will threaten their job.
26% of respondents indicatedthey are highly concerned that
AI could endanger their rolewithin a year.
Gen Z is the most worried, with34% concerned about disruption

(00:46):
within the next three years.
But at the same time, youngerworkers are the most eager to
embrace AI, with 22% of Gen Zsaying they have already
switched jobs for better AIexposure.
These findings point to aworkforce in transition, one
that sees AI not purely as athreat, but also as a potential
career catalyst.

(01:06):
In fact, 78% of respondentssaid they'd consider switching
jobs for better AI training orexposure.
So it's clear to me that AIisn't just changing how people
work, it's starting to guidewhere they work.
The most talented individualswill gravitate towards companies
that help them learn andleverage AI tools, not avoid
them.
And this data all confirms whatI've been hearing from

(01:27):
candidates and employers for awhile.
People don't fear AI as much asthey fear being left out of it.
And so the workers who embraceAI tools and the companies that
teach them to do that, they'rethe ones that are going to win.

And the next headline (01:38):
imagine training an AI on your best
salesperson and then replacing a10-person team with it.
That's exactly what Vercel justdid.
They're a 9.3 billion clouddevelopment platform that now
has one human and one AI agentcomprising their inbound sales
team.
And here's how they did itaccording to Business Insider.
They had engineers shadow thecompany's top performing sales

(02:00):
rep for six weeks, documentingtheir entire process, and then
built an AI to replicate all ofit.
The new AI agent now filtersspam, qualifies leagues, drafts
personalized replies,personalized being relative, I
guess, and routes supportrequests using OpenAI's deep
research tool.
The remaining nine team membersweren't laid off, but

(02:20):
reassigned to more complexoutbound sales roles.
Fircel COO says the company nowhas six agents running and
plans to deploy hundreds more.
So AI everywhere, it looks like.
The goal, she says, isn't tocut jobs, but to move humans
into higher value creative work.
That's a great line, isn't it?
And I see this every time acompany claims to have replaced

(02:43):
people with AI, there's alwaysan opportunity to move what
aren't laid-off workers, butthey're repositioned workers
into more strategic roles, or asthey say, more creative and
higher value roles.
Which begs the questionshouldn't they have been doing
the more strategic high-valuestuff already if they were
qualified to do so?

(03:04):
Maybe that's just me.
But I don't think it's thatsimple.
As we add more AI into the mix,we're not going to need as many
people.
And you can have only so manypeople in strategic positions.
We know that.
And every time I post a storylike this and comment on it, I'm
surprised by the number ofpeople who reply saying AI is

(03:25):
just a fad, it's a bubble, it'snot going to last, this is just
much ado about nothing.
And that seems just hard tobelieve to me.
We see this happening on analmost daily basis now, and it's
only going to get better andhappening happen at increasing
speed.
So there we are, anothercompany replacing a lot of

(03:47):
people with a little AI, andthey're planning to do a whole
lot more of it.
And then the final headlinetoday UPS has cut 48,000 jobs
since last year, with 70% of thelayoffs affecting drivers and
warehouse workers.
CEO Carol Tome was quoted in theNew York Times, calling it the
most significant strategic shiftin our company's history, and

(04:07):
the changes we are implementingare designed to deliver
long-term value for allstakeholders.
Of course, they want to make alot more money.
No surprise there.
The company reported $1.3billion in third quarter profit,
down from $1.5 billion a yearearlier, but managed to boost
revenue per US package by 10%.
The stock rose 7% on this news,but still remains down 25% year

(04:31):
to date.
They said it's due to that partof the business not being
profitable, but when you combinethat with Amazon's new job cuts
and FedEx's decline in shareprice, I think they're down
about 7% this year.

(04:52):
It tells a story to me ofconsumers buying less, creating
a need to ship less.
And regardless of the cause,48,000 jobs being lost is a
massive cut, especially forthose individuals impacted in
this difficult job market.
So look, we know thesecompanies exist to make a
profit.
You can't blame them for doingthat.

(05:13):
But you can't also forget thatthere's real people impacted by
this.
Loyal workers, they didn't seethis coming, probably.
But anyone who works forcorporate America ultimately
shouldn't be surprised that thisis how decisions will go down.
And you gotta protect yourselfagainst that as best you can.
So it doesn't catch you offguard.
So those are the stories today.

(05:34):
But let's leave with a funfact, turn it to a little
brighter note, that a facefeeler is a real job.
It's someone who's a sensoryscientist paid to feel a
person's face after they've usedcosmetic products to determine
the product's effectiveness.
Sounds kind of gross to me.
I wonder if they wear gloves.
I mean, you couldn't feelanything if you did.

(05:56):
So take something away from theeffectiveness, but that's also
kind of a gross thing to do fora living.
But I guess there's lots ofpeople who do that already,
dermatologists being one thatcomes to mind.
But I'm sure the face feelerisn't getting paid quite as much
as the average dermatologist.
But there we are.
Fun fact face feeler is a realjob.
Feel free to pursue it if youwant.

(06:17):
Probably can't be replaced byAI, at least not yet.
So thanks for listening today.
Please like, subscribe, sharewith anyone who might be
interested.
And um, I look forward totalking to you tomorrow.