{"id":57255,"date":"2025-07-11T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57255\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:10:09","slug":"as-tech-ceos-predict-ai-will-replace-humans-in-just-5-years-this-fortune-500-boss-says-taking-the-focus-off-real-people-is-a-recipe-for-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57255\/","title":{"rendered":"As tech CEOs predict AI will replace humans in just 5 years, this Fortune 500 boss says taking the focus off real people is a \u2018recipe for failure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI is already leaving its mark on corporate America, with tech layoffs hitting 75,000<\/a> this year alone as companies prepare for the technology to rival humans in just five years<\/a> time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this may fuel dreams of a two-day workweek<\/a>\u2014or fear an AI-fueled apocalypse<\/a>\u2014James Zallie, CEO of Fortune 500<\/a> food ingredient company Ingredion<\/a>, has a clear answer: People\u2014and culture\u2014still come first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take your eye off either the customer or the employee and you get very internally focused, it\u2019s a recipe for failure,\u201d said Zallie in an appearance on the Inside the Ice House podcast<\/a>, hosted by the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while Zallie\u2019s $8.7 billion company has embraced technology<\/a> like AI in part to predict supply chain issues, refine recipe formulations, and keep up with regulations\u2014letting anything distract from people and culture could backfire, the baby boomer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in society today that if you don\u2019t have a strong culture, your business will suffer. And if you don\u2019t focus on people, you will also,\u201d Zallie added. \u201cPeople will see through whether you\u2019re really living your values and whether you have a care for people in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when some companies like Meta<\/a> and Target<\/a> have rolled back DEI initiatives<\/a>, Ingredion still includes \u201cEverybody Belongs\u201d as one of its five core values. And while serving as CEO is the dream job title for most business leaders, Zallie said in reality, he more so sees his job as a chief clarity officer of sorts\u2014the messenger of what the company is doing\u2014and why.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in positions of leadership and management have a responsibility and accountability to (employees) to continuously try to figure out on their behalf how they can have fulfilled careers, be motivated,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at my job as CEO as chief clarity officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortune reached out to Zallie for further comment.<\/p>\n

The debate over AI\u2019s future rages on<\/p>\n

While Ingredion has made it clear that people are their priority, other companies are rather confident they can do more with less people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said<\/a> that his $2 trillion company would be shedding members of its corporate workforce thanks to generative AI\u2019s enhanced capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It\u2019s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,\u201d Jassy wrote in an internal memo<\/a> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Microsoft<\/a> has already put some of this into action by laying off 15,000 employees this year alone. And while the company cited the changes as a means to \u201cbest position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,\u201d the cuts hint at prioritization of automation. Last year, AI saved the company $500 million in its call center alone, reports Bloomberg<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And while some CEOs like Salesforce\u2019s Marc Benioff and Google\u2019s Sundar Pichai have increasingly touted AI automation as somewhat of a flex<\/a>, its replacement of workers has left many, such as software engineers<\/a>, feeling helpless.<\/p>\n

Instead of using layoffs as a means to create a more leaner operation, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke<\/a> said the wiser move is to double down on talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers,\u201d Dohmke said to The Silicon Valley Girl Podcast<\/a> late last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if you 10x a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100x,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI is already leaving its mark on corporate America, with tech layoffs hitting 75,000 this year alone as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,64,41903,41904,34731,18313,41905,2105,15876,753,158,67,132,68,41906],"class_list":{"0":"post-57255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-business-leaders","12":"tag-business-leadership","13":"tag-business-management","14":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","15":"tag-company-culture","16":"tag-food-and-drink","17":"tag-layoffs","18":"tag-robots","19":"tag-technology","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-work-culture"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114835477141380778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}