AI, our new teammates

Is AI accelerating workforce reductions?

In August 2025, Docler Holding announced 115 layoffs in Kirchberg; the LCGB called it “the first Luxembourg collective redundancy process in which AI has been cited.” In November, Amazon Luxembourg cut 370 jobs. Around the same time, the ministers for Labour and Education estimated that 72% of Luxembourg jobs will be reshaped by AI, while the ADEM is already reporting that junior developers are struggling to find new roles. It would be more accurate to put these job cuts down to labour costs and the wider economic climate, but these early signals can be read as the first hints of what the US has been living through for the past 18 months.

AI as a driver for refocusing work on higher-value tasks

The use of artificial intelligence in organisations goes far beyond cost reduction and workforce downsizing. It is, above all, part of a broader transformation of work aimed at equipping employees with better tools to perform their roles more effectively.

The objective is not replacement, but improvement. Artificial intelligence is being used to automate manual, repetitive, and low-value tasks, thereby freeing up capacity for more strategic, analytical, and relationship-driven work. According to Nicolas Hurlin, a headhunter, this shift is driving a gradual redesign of roles, where performance is increasingly defined not by execution alone, but by the ability to effectively leverage intelligent tools.

That said, companies are having to rethink roles, internal processes, tools with a greater focus on directing teams toward activities that create value.

Building an effective partnership between people and AI

The question is no longer whether companies will adopt AI: that shift has already happened across every sector. AI tools are gradually working their way into business processes, content production, data analysis, and customer relations. The challenge is now shifting towards governing how they are used: setting best practices, safeguarding sensitive data, ensuring regulatory compliance, and training employees to use these technologies responsibly and effectively.

The most advanced organisations are no longer trying to replace jobs, but to build an effective partnership between people and AI. They are implementing usage frameworks, governance charters and control mechanisms to capture the productivity gains while keeping a firm grip on the risks tied to confidentiality, information quality and intellectual property.

If AI does the work, how do you measure human expertise?

In this context, assessing professional expertise will only become more complex. As AI takes on a growing share of operational tasks, while people supervise, validate, and make the judgement calls, the line between execution and genuine contribution becomes harder to define.

For recruiters, this calls for a fundamental shift in approach: it is no longer enough to assess what a candidate can do on their own; the real task is to understand how they operate in an environment where AI produces part of the deliverables. Interviews will move towards a sharper read of real use cases: the ability to work with these tools, to take a critical view of their output, and to protect the information they handle.

All of which makes recruitment more challenging than ever, at every level.