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When the optimisers become the optimised

Pradip K Saha

April 28, 2026 | 7 Min Read

When the optimisers become the optimised

April 28, 2026 | 7 Min Read

Unlike previous waves of displacement, when those losing jobs were on the margins of the tech economy, the current wave is impacting the very engineers who wrote the code and optimised the workflows. They built the mechanism. The mechanism is now consuming them.

“These are uncertain times. Every day we return home from office is a good day, but without any guarantee that it wasn’t the last day at the office.”

A friend told me this when I asked him what it was like to be an engineer in the age of AI. He cited the recent layoffs at Oracle, which let go of 30,000 people globally via a 6-am email on March 31.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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