LOS ANGELES, Ca., May 4, 2026: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making headlines over the last year for its productivity benefits and the controversies over data centers across the nation. One market sector that is often ignored is the job losses attributed to AI. By 2030, it is estimated that around 30% of today’s jobs will be replaced by AI and automation. Another 60% of the jobs will be modified by AI requiring a different skill set from the workers now performing those jobs. ChatGPT is now being used by almost 50% of American companies.
El Paso companies laid off around 800 workers each year in 2025 and 2024. This is significantly up from less than 200 job losses reported in 2023 and 2022. On March 31, HGS Solutions (Hinduja Global Solutions), a call center based in India, laid off 92 employees at its El Paso facility. The layoffs are part of the company’s transition to AI for its workforce needs.
HGS is one of many companies embracing AI to replace workers, especially in the computer sector and call centers. Last Friday one organization took steps to ban AI work in the coveted awards it awards each year.
AI Banned from the Oscars
On Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science who awards the coveted Oscars awards annually for movies updated its rules banning motion pictures created by AI.
Under the new rules only films “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” are eligible for the award. Under the category for screenplay writers, the new rules require the film’s screenplay to “be human-authored” to be eligible for the award. The Academy is also now reserving the right “to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship” when Generative Artificial Intelligence is used.
Generative Artificial Intelligence is used to streamline creative development such as story boards, and in marketing to streamline the often-tedious work normally produced by ancillary service providers to the studios. Of concern to companies in the creative sector is the job losses that occur when a worker is replaced with AI. As an example, instead of having a graphics designer design a social media graphic promoting the film, studio executives can simply prompt an AI agent, like ChatGPT with, “make me a social media graphic about a movie about AI firing a screenwriter.”
ChatGPT out put from prompt “make me a social media graphic about a movie about AI firing a screenwriter,” May 4, 2025, Martín Paredes/El Paso Herald Post.
The Academy’s rules updates will only allow movie scripts written by humans for award considerations. AI actors will no longer be considered for awards as well.
The job sectors most at risk for job losses include computer programmers. Instead of hiring a programmer to write the code for an App, a startup can simply prompt an AI agent to code it for them. Call center employees are also being replaced by AI. However, it is the higher-paying jobs in finance and legal support staff, as well as jobs in research and data analysis that are at most risk from AI. Entry level workers in the fast-food industries and grocery stores are already being replaced by automated order taking kiosks and checkout stations. The least vulnerable jobs are those in the hospitality sector in cleaning and maintenance because robots are not yet ready to perform those jobs.
Automated front desk services and online reservation systems have helped reduce overhead. And although robotic vacuums and delivery bots are being deployed, the human capital to manage them remains in place for various reasons including floor layouts and the need for a human to ensure the automation is properly performing its tasks in each room.
AI is attractive to companies because it reduces their overhead by replacing wages, generally the largest expense for most companies, with computer programs that are not paid wages to produce.
Several El Paso political candidates used AI generated images for their social media campaigns in the March primary. It is likely many candidates on the November ballot will also rely on AI content for their speeches, position papers and graphics as well.
Like Us and Follow Us On Our Social Media!
A note about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in our news reporting. The El Paso Herald Post does not use AI for its news reporting. The use of ChatGPT in this article was used to illustrate how Generative Artificial Intelligence works through prompting to generate an example of how AI can be used to replace a worker for illustrative purposes only. Any use of AI is clearly disclosed when used. The two AI generated elements in this article, include the article cover with the word “REPLACED.”, and the social media for the movie example. The rest of the article is human-generated.
Visited 21 times, 21 visit(s) today