The former General Motors headquarters inside the Renaissance Center in Detroit, April 15, 2024.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT — As artificial intelligence expands, it threatens to exacerbate a growing trend for America’s largest automakers: the elimination of white-collar workers.
The “Detroit Three” automakers have together cut more than 20,000 U.S. salaried jobs, or 19% of their combined workforces, from recent employment peaks this decade, according to public filings and employment data from the companies.
Reasons for the job declines vary by automaker, but in general are tied to evolving technological changes in the automotive industry, with the rise of software-defined vehicles, autonomous and all-electric vehicles, and, increasingly, AI.
“Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in July at the Aspen ideas Festival. “AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind,” he added later.
The largest American automaker has led the cuts, with General Motors reducing U.S. salaried headcounts by roughly 11,000 people from 2022 through last year. Those job cuts came after GM had a run-up in employment, expanding from 48,000 U.S. white-collar workers in 2020 to 58,000 in 2022.
Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis have cut jobs more gradually. From its salaried employment peak in 2020, Ford has scaled back by roughly 5,300 workers to reach about 30,700 white-collar employees last year, while Stellantis has gone from 15,000 salaried workers in 2020 to about 11,000 during that time.
On an annual basis, combined white-collar employment for the three automakers peaked at roughly 102,000 jobs in 2022. It fell 13%, to 88,700 people, as of the end of last year.
GM IT layoffs
Gad Levanon, chief economist at the labor data market nonprofit Burning Glass Institute, said he believes the jobs most at risk of being replaced by AI are clerical positions and more repetitive office jobs, like those in finance and information technology, including coding.
“A lot of white collar workers will lose their jobs because AI can automate some of their tasks,” he said, adding that some losses will be offset by jobs in growing areas of importance for automakers, such as autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity and software-defined vehicles. “I think it will be a major trend in the next decade or two.”
GM this week added to its cuts by laying off between 500 and 600 salaried workers globally, largely in information technology operations in Texas and Michigan, people familiar with the matter told CNBC, speaking anonymously about details that had not been made public. Those cuts were partially due to changing workforce needs involving AI, the people said.
GM’s layoffs came as the automaker is increasingly hiring for AI-related jobs and encouraging workers, including in IT, to embrace its AI platforms, according to a handful of current or former GM employees and the company’s hiring website.
“They’re going to push AI for everyday work and everything else,” a veteran programmer and data scientist for GM who was laid off this week told CNBC, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions or impacts to potential future jobs. “I’ve seen it firsthand. It can make you much more productive, as a programmer. It can really help you get more work done, but AI isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t know the business.”
Mary Barra, chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Co., speaks during the grand opening of General Motors global headquarters at Hudson’s Detroit in Detroit, Michigan, US, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Prior to the IT reductions, notable decreases in GM’s U.S. salaried workforce occurred as a result the winding down and eventual discontinuation of its Cruise robotaxi business as well as rolling evaluations of the company’s workforce under GM CEO Mary Barra.
“Sometimes the people who got you to ‘point A’ aren’t necessarily people who are going to get you to ‘point B,'” Barra said during an Automotive Press Association meeting in January about turnover in the automaker’s top ranks.
GM, Ford and Stellantis declined to comment on their reductions in U.S. white-collar workers in recent years.
The automakers have previously cited “transformations,” “bold choices,” cost-cutting and “strengthening” or making a unit more efficient as reasons for job cuts.
Help wanted
The decline in salaried jobs at the Detroit Three isn’t necessarily representative of the overall U.S. automotive industry.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports motor vehicle manufacturing jobs only dropped by 0.2% from 2022 through last year, to 285,800 workers. That data includes both salaried and hourly workers.
And not all automakers have been cutting U.S. salaried jobs. Toyota Motor reported a roughly 31% increase in its American white-collar workforce from 2020 through 2025, to roughly 47,500 people.
Ford, GM and Stellantis are also still hiring for some roles.
Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks as Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, U.S. Rep Lisa McClain (R-MI), U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and U.S. President Donald Trump listen during the announcement of new fuel economy standards, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 3, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, who is leading a companywide turnaround that includes a global cost-cutting program, has said the company still plans to add more than 2,000 white-collar jobs in North America.
Combined, the Detroit automakers currently have more than 2,000 open positions in the U.S., according to their job sites. Of those posted jobs, nearly 400 involve AI, with GM seeking more than 250 positions dealing with AI, according to search results.
Lenny LaRocca, lead of consulting firm KPMG’s automotive practice in the Americas, said automakers need to be cautious about how they execute AI strategies with workers.
“They really need to think about how they adapt it and use it to generate, to be more efficient and be more profitable,” he said. “I don’t know necessarily if it’s just to reduce headcounts. I think the focus is more on how do they do their job better and how to be more innovative and move quicker.”
Work roles are evolving quickly with AI, requiring new skills, according to a recent post from Gregory Emerson, managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group.
BCG forecasts five years from now — or perhaps further in the future — 10% to 15% of jobs in the U.S. could be eliminated as AI proliferates, with 50% to 55% of U.S. jobs being reshaped by AI over the next two to three years.
“This shift is already happening—and will pick up speed as AI adoption spreads,” Emerson wrote in the coauthored report. “Those who cut their workforce beyond AI’s ability to replace it will see productivity drop, institutional knowledge disappear, and critical talent walk away. Those who fail to dramatically rethink work will see their competitors grow faster and more profitably.”
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/15/general-motors-ford-stellantis-job-cuts-ai.html
