THE CLAIM. 54% of 2026 layoffs cited AI or automation as a factor, totaling roughly 205,000 US workers this year. THE CHECK: the 54% figure and its 170,000-plus headcount both trace to Layoffs.fyi, whose own methodology counts whatever the company or press attributed to AI; the 205,000 figure instead comes from a separate, less established tracker, ResumePulse, that does not report a 54% share of its own. THE TWIST: Deutsche Bank analysts have a name for this pattern, AI redundancy washing, defined as companies attributing cuts to AI when other factors may be equally or more responsible, and Sam Altman himself has said some companies blame AI for cuts they would have made anyway.