Rarely does a week go by without a headline announcing a major company cutting thousands of jobs, often tied to the expanded use of artificial intelligence. Read closely, and a different story often emerges. Companies that grew too fast saw margins compress. They needed to restructure. AI is the “cover story,” but bloat was the problem.
This narrative matters for automotive suppliers. It shapes how executives think about AI — as a cost-cutting tool or a head count reducer. That framing is not only limiting but may be the wrong strategy entirely.
According to McKinsey, about 88 percent of midsize to large enterprises use AI in some meaningful form. Yet only 8 percent see a measurable impact on EBITDA. What separates this small group from everyone else? They are not using AI to eliminate people. Instead, they approach it with a focus on innovation and revenue growth that they never had the bandwidth to chase before.
Many are feeling overwhelmed by all this AI talk. That makes sense, given that this technology is growing faster than any in history. For context, Instagram took 2.5 years to reach 100 million users. ChatGPT did it in 2.5 months. Today, more than 4 billion prompts are entered into the top 3 AI tools. No technology has ever scaled this quickly. So, it’s no wonder that many of us feel like we’re being left in the dust.
Feeling confused or behind is understandable. That pressure should not push auto companies into defensive, reactive uses of a tool. If deployed correctly, AI could become a genuine competitive advantage.