AI layoffs: Airbnb and Palantir CEOs say who keeps their job

Chesky made his case on the Invest Like The Best podcast. His argument is that the main threat to office workers is a reluctance to adapt, not the technology itself.

He singled out one group in particular: managers whose job is mostly supervision. Routine check-ins, one-on-ones, scheduling and tracking projects are exactly the kind of coordination AI tools are starting to handle. In his view, those pure people-management roles will lose value.

What replaces them, Chesky says, is a hybrid leader who still leads a team but also does hands-on work, solves problems and helps build the product. He pointed to former Apple design chief Jony Ive as an example of someone who balanced real craft with building a strong team.

His tone was more upbeat than the headlines. Chesky said learning modern AI tools is straightforward for anyone with a growth mindset, meaning a willingness to keep learning rather than defending how things have always been done.

Karp spoke on the TBPN podcast. In his telling, only two things reliably signal that a worker has a future once AI spreads: vocational training, or being neurodivergent. Coverage of his remarks listed ADHD, autism and dyslexia as examples. Karp is dyslexic himself.

The logic behind the first path is fairly clear. Skilled trades rely on hands-on, local, physical judgment that software can’t easily copy. The second is more about how people think. Karp said the person likely to succeed may be more of an artist, someone who comes at problems from a different direction and builds something unique.

Both routes steer clear of the busy center of desk work, where machines find standard, repeatable tasks easiest to copy.

Daniel Wendler, an autistic psychologist whose work focuses on neurodiversity, said Karp has a point, but a narrower one. If neurodivergent people aren’t in the room when teams tackle AI, those teams miss a perspective. That is an argument for including different thinkers, not a promise that they are safe from job cuts.

Wendler also made a practical point. Many offices are built around how most people work and overlook neurodivergent employees’ needs. Because those workers have often had to find workarounds, they may be among the keenest users of AI, which can break big assignments into smaller steps, organize tasks and help with communication.

He has also warned against the idea that every neurodivergent worker has a hidden superpower. That framing, he argues, ignores the real difficulties that come with conditions like ADHD and dyslexia. And the big claim, that neurodivergent people as a group will do better in an AI economy, has no data behind it in anything Karp or the coverage presented.

Words are cheap, so look at programs. Palantir runs a Neurodivergent Fellowship Program with a salary range of $110,000 to $200,000 a year, and its job ad says fellows face the same performance bar as other engineers. Other big employers have similar efforts, JPMorgan Chase, Dell and Microsoft among them, while the Autism at Work program at SAP has run for over ten years.

Neither CEO announced a new hiring policy, quota or layoff plan alongside these remarks. And both are selling something: Airbnb is building AI into how it runs, and Palantir sells data and AI software. Their predictions are also, in part, a pitch.

Strip away the hype and the two CEOs agree on more than it first seems. The safest place is away from work that is purely routine. Some practical steps:

• Pick up the tools now. Spend an hour a week using AI assistants on real tasks in your job. Chesky’s point is that the learning curve is short if you start.
• Add hands-on value. If you manage people, keep a piece of real work for yourself, whether that’s analysis, design, code or customer problems.
• Make your angle visible. Karp’s artist idea rewards people who bring a different view. Show the unusual fixes and ideas you bring, not just the tasks you complete.
• Don’t ignore the trades. Skilled, physical work is one area both CEOs’ logic says AI can’t easily copy.
• Ask for what helps you work. If AI tools make your job easier because of how your brain works, say so. Employers are rethinking how work gets done anyway.