Apple Was Ready to Replace Roughly 5,000 Workers With AI, but Something Alarming Made the Company Put the Entire Plan on Hold

Apple considered laying off roughly 5,000 AppleCare support employees and replacing much of their work with AI, according to a new report.

The company believed generative AI could handle enough customer support requests to justify the cuts but has since put the plan on hold indefinitely. Apple is no longer “currently looking to take such a step,” the report says.

The employees may be staying for now, but the AI system that could eventually handle more of their work is already answering AppleCare calls.

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AppleCare calls now start with AI

Customers calling 1-800-APL-CARE in the United States and Canada are now greeted by a generative AI assistant instead of the automated phone system Apple used for years.

Rather than forcing callers through a series of menu choices, the new system can interpret spoken questions, answer them directly, and walk customers through troubleshooting steps.

It can also transfer the call to a human AppleCare advisor when it can’t resolve the problem or when the customer asks to speak with someone.

That puts AI in the first line of Apple’s customer support operation without removing the human support staff behind it.

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Apple backed away from cutting 5,000 jobs

The proposed layoffs were never publicly announced, and Apple hasn’t explained why the plan was shelved.

It’s also unclear whether Apple has abandoned the idea entirely. The company could revisit the cuts if its AI support system eventually handles a larger share of customer requests.

Apple has already been reducing management elsewhere. Roughly half a dozen directors were recently dismissed as CEO John Ternus pushes the company to remove management layers, slow hiring, and get more work from existing teams.

AppleCare presents a different challenge from eliminating management positions. Customers often contact support because something has already gone wrong with an expensive device, an account, a repair, or a service they rely on.

For now, Apple is keeping roughly 5,000 jobs it considered eliminating while letting the technology that could replace some of that work handle the first conversation with customers.