THG CEO Matt Moulding has warned of a ‘tsunami impact’ coming from AI.
The entrepreneur was speaking out after Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced 40 per cent job cuts at his tech company Block, as a result of AI.
Moulding said: “Make no mistake, the key players in the US are moving fast around AI, and we all need to take note.
“Anyone still asleep about the tsunami impact coming from AI, then today’s news is another wakeup call.
“Jack Dorsey, founder and chair of Block, the US group behind Square and Cash App, has announced he’s cutting 40 per cent of his workforce, by rolling out mass adoption of AI.
“4,000 highly paid global jobs will be gone by this weekend, adding to the near 30,000 head office job losses announced by Amazon in the past five months alone.
“Most of the US tech giants are making dramatic changes to their business models and people teams, because they clearly see something coming.
“Dorsey is no mug. He founded Twitter, sold it to Elon Musk, and has gone on to be serious player in the global payments market.
“We’ve made no secret at THG about the need to change for the road ahead. Combined, THG PLC and THG Ingenuity had a workforce of 10,200 at 1 Jan 2022. Automation, AI and streamlining means today our workforce stands at 5,200.
“Revenue per employee is now a key metric across all THG businesses, doubling over the past four years.
“In THG Ingenuity alone, 2,000 robots globally now complete more tasks, more quickly than the 3,000 humans before them, at a fraction of the cost. Buildings are also a big cost, but robots need much smaller spaces, slashed property costs.”
Rachel Reeves warning
And he had a warning for Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“If Rachel Reeves doesn’t track the news, someone might want to suggest the timing for heavily taxing job creation might be less than ideal,” he said.
- Last week, THG Studios hosted the world’s first AI driven catwalk at its Manchester Tech Campus, supported by a host of major partners including Topshop, PayPal, Google Cloud, EVRI, Geekplus and Zencargo.
THG Studios catwalk event
Everything at the event was built around the use of AI – from all music at the event being AI generated, through to a dedicated AI app allowing the audience to try on catwalk ranges as they watched the show.
Hannah Pym, chief brand and marketing officer at THG Ingenuity, said: “This event was our ‘runway to the future’, and its success has validated our vision for the next era of commerce.
“We proved that when you fuse creativity with technology, you can create powerful, personal, and commercial experiences that build deep, meaningful connections.”