At Cannes Lions 2025, Mustafa Suleyman—Microsoft’s newly anointed CEO of AI—stood on stage and declared that “bigger organisations are starting to feel the pressure” from artificial intelligence.
He wasn’t wrong, but the pressure isn’t always technological.
Increasingly, it’s psychological and it’s being deliberately applied not on machines, but on people.
Across boardrooms and business conferences, a new narrative has emerged: the AI reckoning is here, and jobs will be swept away in the algorithmic tide.
Yet, a closer look at the numbers tells a more nuanced and more troubling story.
The real revolution may not be about automation displacing work, but about CEOs weaponising the fear of it to control workplace behaviour.
The Rise of Corporate AI Theatre
In April 2025, data showed that generative AI agents could only complete around 24% of assigned tasks effectively.
Despite this, CEOs across industries continue issuing dire warnings about mass job displacement.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for instance, circulated a memo predicting workforce reductions “in the next few years” due to AI, while simultaneously admitting that “it’s hard to know” how many roles would be affected.
No data. No timeline. Just a vague threat lingering in the air.
Meanwhile, at a recent tech summit, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggested AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years—a claim made without evidence or qualification.
It was the kind of speculative soundbite that fuels anxiety without offering actionable clarity.
This isn’t innovation. It’s pure intimidation.
The Numbers Don’t Lie—But the Narratives Might
Companies like Klarna, which laid off 22% of its workforce in 2024 in anticipation of AI efficiencies, found themselves scrambling to rehire when those efficiencies didn’t materialise.
CleanRouter, a tech startup in network optimisation, found its AI tools required more human oversight, not less—constantly failing basic tasks and demanding manual corrections.
Even Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis—arguably the faces of AI innovation—have pushed back against these doomsday scenarios, urging the industry to focus on real use-cases over fear-driven forecasting.
And yet, the fear persists. Why?
Because for CEOs navigating post-pandemic productivity slumps and demanding shareholders, fear is an effective management tool.
Manufacturing Consent Through Automation
In the age of hyper-efficiency, executives have discovered that hinting at AI-led job cuts is often more effective than actual implementation.
It compels compliance.
It deters complaints.
It keeps staff “grateful” to still be in the game.
Workers, overwhelmed by AI narratives, often over-deliver out of fear that their next presentation might be their last.
This is not some grand conspiracy.
It’s a savvy, if cynical, form of psychological management.
In the words of tech critic Ed Zitron, “These AI agents are just trumped-up automations that still need humans to babysit them.”
The illusion is strong but it is still an illusion.
A Gartner survey of 163 business leaders revealed that 50% have already abandoned plans to dramatically cut customer service staff using AI.
Only 45% of corporate IT heads even have formal AI policies in place.
The rest are relying on fragmented, reactive strategies—hardly the blueprint for mass workforce transformation.
Creativity, Not Compliance, Should Drive AI
At Cannes, Suleyman and WPP’s Chief Creative Officer Colleen DeCourcy discussed how AI could democratise creativity, lower the barriers for ideation, and add “frictionless” flow to creative work.
That, arguably, is the true promise of AI—not to replace human imagination, but to elevate it.
For marketers and agencies in Malaysia, this is a crucial moment.
Do we allow fear-based narratives to define the workplace?
Or do we use AI as a catalyst for more meaningful collaboration, ideation and productivity?
The Malaysian marketing ecosystem is built on human insight, cultural nuance and storytelling—traits that AI can support, but not replicate.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat to jobs, we should see it as an amplifier for creativity, provided it’s implemented transparently and ethically.
Less Fear, More Foresight
The challenge for CMOs and brand leaders isn’t to echo vague threats from Silicon Valley boardrooms, but to build AI strategies rooted in local context, clear policies, and a commitment to wellbeing.
AI doesn’t have to mean job cuts—it can mean better workflows, smarter insights, and new formats for audience engagement.
The future of marketing in Malaysia depends not on how fast we adopt AI, but on how responsibly we do so.
Let’s move beyond scare tactics.
Let’s start a conversation about AI that’s based on evidence, not anxiety.
