Good morning. Synthetic intelligence is redefining the office, and company jobs aren’t excluded from its attain.
Throughout a panel session on the Fortune International Discussion board in Riyadh final week, Anne Lim O’Brien, vice chair and accomplice at Heidrick & Struggles, stated, “Professional services—lawyers, accountants, management consultants like myself—the ones who actually process, analyze, and deal with a lot of data, those are the skills that can be replaced by AI and agentic AI.”
Hisham Radwan, CEO of Cigna Insurance coverage Saudi Arabia and a fellow panelist, added actuaries to that rising checklist. “AI is moving so fast that we can’t control it,” Radwan stated. “But bottom line—it’s an enhancement to our capabilities rather than a replacement.”
As corporations shift from the hype part to the adoption part of AI, they’re seeing productiveness beneficial properties, O’Brien stated. However she famous that corporations should handle a vital query: What are they doing with the time AI saves?
For leaders, the promise of AI goes far past effectivity—it ought to free time for strategic considering and innovation, she stated. It’s additionally a possibility to double down on abilities like emotional intelligence, which is extensively thought-about one of many core human skills that AI can not really exchange, she added.
Reimagining company jobs
Tech big Amazon’s strategy is shaking up the company panorama. The corporate introduced final week that it’s going to minimize roughly 14,000 company jobs—about 4% of its white-collar workforce, largely center managers—as a part of a restructuring geared toward “reducing bureaucracy” and “removing organizational layers.”
The corporate is providing “most employees” 90 days to search for a brand new function internally. For individuals who can’t discover a new function or select to not search for one, Amazon will present severance pay, outplacement companies, and medical health insurance advantages, amongst different measures, Beth Galetti, senior vice chairman of Individuals Expertise, wrote within the announcement to staff.
Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy stated final yr that he needs the corporate to function like “the world’s largest startup” and to have the appropriate construction to drive that degree of velocity and possession. Throughout the firm’s quarterly earnings name on Thursday, Jassy stated the layoffs have been a couple of cultural mismatch, not primarily monetary, Fortune reported.
“The announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven—not right now, at least,” Jassy stated of the job cuts. “It’s culture.”
Fortune’s Eva Roytburg highlights that Galetti talked about within the firm memo that this era of AI is a “transformative technology” and that the corporate must be organized extra leanly—with fewer layers and extra possession—to maneuver as shortly as doable.
“The move may offer an early glimpse of how AI is actually reshaping the labor force: not by immediately displacing the tactile, mundane factory roles everyone expected, but by hollowing out the white-collar ranks that run them,” Roytburg writes. Gartner analysts estimate that by 2026, one in 5 organizations may use AI to estimate a minimum of half of their administration layers.
AI could not essentially take your job—however somebody who is aware of learn how to use AI higher than you may, O’Brien warned throughout the panel session in Riyadh. The takeaway: upskilling and reskilling aren’t only for these in non-corporate positions—they’re important at each degree of the group.
Leaderboard
Elias Habayeb, CFO of Corebridge Monetary, Inc. (NYSE: CRBG), has resigned to simply accept a senior management place with a publicly listed firm. Habayeb will stay in his present place till April 24, 2026. Habayeb’s departure shouldn’t be the results of any disagreements with the corporate on any matter regarding its monetary statements, inner management over monetary reporting, operations, insurance policies or practices. Corebridge is working with an govt recruiting agency to launch a seek for a successor.
Cassandra Hudson was appointed CFO of Alkami Know-how, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALKT), a digital gross sales and repair platform supplier, efficient November 1. Hudson brings greater than 20 years of expertise. Most lately, she served as CFO of StackAdapt. Earlier than that, she was CFO of EngageSmart, the place she guided the corporate via a profitable IPO in 2021. Earlier in her profession, Hudson spent 12 years at Carbonite in a collection of finance management roles, finally serving as chief accounting officer and VP of finance.
Massive Deal
Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) International M&A Report 2025 exhibits international deal worth rose 10% to $1.9 trillion via Q3, pushed by North America, which accounted for 62% of offers ($1.3 trillion, up 26% yr over yr). Seasoned acquirers—utilizing confirmed playbooks and more and more, AI—achieved a two-year common return of +1.0%, whereas much less skilled consumers noticed –7.5%.
Regardless of challenges like geopolitical tensions and shifting tariffs, many dealmakers proceed to maneuver ahead, significantly in small- and mid-cap markets, the place regional transactions have been extra insulated from disruptions, in response to BCG. Strategic development, functionality constructing, and resilience stay key drivers.
North America is the highest area by worth, and expertise leads amongst industries. Main companies now embed AI all through diligence, valuation, and integration, accelerating decision-making and danger administration. Megadeals are rebounding, with 27 transactions over $10 billion this yr (up from 21 final yr). Sector standouts embody industrials (+77%), tech (+10%), power (+20%), and well being care (+20%).
Going deeper
“Stock futures climb as investors await Supreme Court showdown on Trump tariffs and shareholder vote on Musk’s $1 trillion pay package” is a Fortune report by Jason Ma.
From the report: “Markets signaled another positive session as futures rose Sunday night ahead of a big week for President Donald Trump’s tariffs and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s blockbuster compensation plan. Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average rose 107 points, or 0.22%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.28%, and Nasdaq futures added 0.30%. That would add to Friday’s rally.”
Overheard
“Successful organizations treat tech debt like financial debt, managing it proactively with a strong digital core, agility and a culture of continuous improvement.”
—Daniel Kendzior, the worldwide cybersecurity AI reinvention chief for Accenture, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “The haunting consequences of ignoring tech debt in an agentic AI world.”
