“The way I see it, in the next five years, there will be less and less entry level jobs. There are some of these jobs that will go away, and they will not be back,” Middle Tennessee State University information-technology professor Sam Zaza said. “But at the same time, new jobs will come in.”<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1998ff785a2293a9701df445b2c37e3f.jpeg\")
The 101 Platform Way N. building in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, April 16, 2026. The building is home to Amazon’s Nashville offices. <\/p>\n
Zaza pointed to artificial intelligence as a key driver behind the restructuring and subsequent layoffs. Just as the rise of the internet fueled the dot\u2011com bubble in the late 1990s and web analytics reshaped tech jobs by 2010, she and other experts expect AI to drive the next major shift.<\/p>\n
“What we’re seeing, it’s not new,” Zaza said. “It’s history repeating itself.”<\/p>\n
Tennessee started increasing its tech investments in the early 2010s and quickly became one of the\u00a0fastest-growing markets for tech jobs in 2015<\/a>. Deputy Governor and Tennessee Economic Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter said the COVID-19 pandemic briefly threw off that momentum, but tech remains a heavy focus for state leaders, especially as AI growth continues.<\/p>\n “Tennessee\u2019s technology sector is an increasingly important part of our economic strategy, but we view it primarily through a workforce lens,” McWhorter said. “We believe a real opportunity lies in strengthening and diversifying our tech talent pipeline, meaning cultivating the right environment to educate, train and retain highly skilled workers across the state.”<\/p>\n Waymo implemented AI technology<\/a> to take the place of rideshare drivers. Netflix uses automated models to customize customer profiles for movie suggestions and personalized artwork. Amazon deploys AI<\/a> to optimize delivery routes, forecast demand for products and reduce the need for in-store employees at some Whole Foods locations with its just-walk-out model.<\/p>\n “The industry is still figuring out how to maximize the benefits it gets from AI usage,” Zaza said.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n The gap between the promise of new technologies and real-world implementation can create a cycle of over-hiring followed by mass layoffs, as seen recently at Amazon, Oracle<\/a> and Meta, among others, she said.<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs researcher Joseph Briggs said this cycle will continue over the next decade, and up to 7% of the workforce will be displaced during that time. If the displacement is spread across 10 years, he said he expects about 0.6% increase in the unemployment rate.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see AI\u2019s impact in the tech sector, where the employment share as a proportion of the whole economy has gone below the long-term trend,\u201d Briggs said, in a March report. \u201cBut if it\u2019s more frontloaded, the impacts on the economy are much larger.”<\/p>\n After analyzing four decades of federal data encompassing numerous technology-driven layoffs, Goldman Sachs researchers Pierfrancesco Mei and Jessica Rindels wrote in a recent note that workers who lose jobs because of automation take longer to find new jobs and are more vulnerable to pay cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cAI-driven displacement could impose lasting costs on affected workers, worsening labor market outcomes for several years,\u201d an April 6 report said.<\/p>\n In 2025, Tennessee layoffs hit a five-year high<\/a> with 8,856 employees impacted by mass employee reductions, according to The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Those included companies like FedEx, Bridgestone, Kroger and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.<\/p>\n In 2026, about 2,821 employees were laid off, according to mass layoff reports from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That total does not include cutbacks at Oracle, Amazon and other companies headquartered outside the state. Neither Oracle nor Amazon has specified how many employees were laid off in Tennessee.<\/p>\n Other major companies that cut down their Tennessee workforces this year include Nike, which slashed 583 jobs from distribution centers, auto parts maker First Brands, which nixed 333 jobs, and Blue Oval SK’s staff reduction of 150 at a Stanton battery plant.<\/p>\n As large tech companies cut back on entry\u2011level roles in favor of workers with AI skills, smaller Tennessee startups say the shift is creating new opportunities.<\/p>\n “For growing tech companies in Middle Tennessee, that tech talent pipeline that was freshly graduating and heading straight into corporate is maybe no longer heading into corporate at that same rate,” LaunchTN Director Lindsey Cox said. “It’s a really interesting opportunity to capture some folks that weren’t going to be on the table before as potential hires.”<\/p>\n LaunchTN is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Tennessee’s startup ecosystem, and Cox said she’s encouraging their portfolio companies to take advantage of the situation. Still, Cox said the need for senior engineering talent who understand how to implement AI remains prominent.<\/p>\n “My broader concern as an individual would be how are we then training up junior folks to get that knowledge,” Cox said. “We’re looking to our universities for how they are educating that tech talent to be able to utilize AI. Companies are going to be looking for that immediately.”<\/p>\n Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at\u00a0hhitson@gannett.com<\/a>. To support her work,\u00a0subscribe to The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vanderbilt University Medical Center laid off over 600 employees in Nashville, Tenn., in 2025. <\/p>\n
From left, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Nashville Mayor Freddie O\u2019Connell, and Launch Tennessee CEO Lindsey Cox alongside Memphis Mayor Paul Young all listen as Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly speaks during Tennessee’s 3686 conference at Cannery Hall in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. <\/p>\n
The 101 Platform Way N. building, left, in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, April 16, 2026. The building is home to Amazon’s Nashville offices. <\/p>\n