Two in three employers that reduced headcount because of artificial intelligence are already rehiring laid off staff, as most express regret over how they handled the AI-led retrenchments.

This is according to a new study from Careerminds, which polled 600 HR professionals in February 2026 who made layoffs in the last 12 months.

It found that 32.7% of organisations that conducted AI-led layoffs had already rehired between 25% to 50% of the roles they initially let go.

Another 35.6% said they had already rehired more than half of the roles that they cut.

According to the findings, the rehiring also took place quite shortly after the layoffs occurred. More than half of HR leaders (52.1%) said they rehired for previously eliminated roles within just six months.

Some 17.8% said they began rebuilding their workforce within three months, while 2.1% said they waited for over a year.

The findings paint a bleak future for the expanding list of organisations that have announced headcount reductions as a result of AI adoption in their workplace.

Instant layoff regrets

The backpedalling observed in Careerminds' report comes in the wake of widespread consequences experienced by HR leaders following the retrenchments.

According to the findings, more than half of HR leaders said AI required more human insight than anticipated.

More than 20% also said their AI tools underperformed or did not deliver as expected.

Just 21.4% of the respondents said AI fully replaced roles with no operational issues, while 66.1% of HR teams said only some roles were replaced successfully with automation.

The widespread redundancies also led to the loss of critical skills and expertise in the workplace, according to a third of HR leaders.

More than a quarter also reported that their remaining workforce just did not have the skills to fill the gaps left by other employees.

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