Dec 11, 2025 - Technology

Exclusive: Key Dem demands AI job impact data from companies

Maria Curi

Illustration of a giant hand cursor pointing at a small employee at a desk — Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The chair of the New Democrat Coalition's AI Task Force is pushing tech companies that have laid off workers to detail how AI factored into those decisions, according to a letter shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: Layoffs are fueling anxiety about AI, but policymakers lack quality data to understand the impact of the technology on the workforce.

Driving the news: Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) sent the letter on Thursday to Amazon, Salesforce, Meta, Verizon, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Accenture, HP, Intel, Target, UPS, Synopsys and Lenovo.

Foushee asked the companies to respond to questions that address:

The demographic impact of this year's layoffs;
How many layoffs were directly tied to AI;
And how employees have been notified that they were being let go.

In addition to the letter, Foushee is sending companies a congressional report on AI job impacts.

So far in 2025, 54,694 layoff plans happened because of AI, according to a December report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas that Foushee cites in the report.
Foushee also notes in the report that unemployment for Black Americans is rising disproportionately compared with white Americans.

Context: The New Dems, a key bloc of moderates, rolled out an AI platform earlier this year that it pitched as centering middle-class American workers.

What's next: Companies have until Dec. 31 to respond to Foushee's letter.

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Exclusive: Key Dem demands AI job impact data from companies

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