Remember when everyone said AI would take over “someday”? Well, plot twist: someday is today, and it’s messier than anyone expected.
While tech bros were busy promising robot butlers and flying cars, AI quietly started doing something way more disruptive – it began making actual humans redundant. And not in some distant sci-fi future, but right now, in 2025.
The Numbers Don’t Lie (Even When CEOs Do)
Amazon just axed 14,000 corporate jobs – their biggest layoff ever. Verizon said goodbye to 13,000 workers. IBM is basically playing musical chairs, but the music stopped and there aren’t enough seats.
Here’s the kicker: over 4,200 companies have announced layoffs or hiring freezes this year, all citing the same reason – AI can do it cheaper, faster, and without asking for vacation days.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (yes, they study more than just interest rates) found that jobs most exposed to AI are seeing the sharpest unemployment spikes. Turns out, when a computer can do your job for the cost of electricity, your boss starts doing some uncomfortable math.
The Fed’s Playbook Just Got Shredded
Here’s where it gets interesting for investors. The Federal Reserve’s traditional move – cut rates to encourage hiring – just became about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Lower rates used to mean companies would borrow money to expand and hire more people. Now? They borrow money to buy more AI systems and hire fewer people. It’s like trying to put out a fire with gasoline, but the fire is unemployment and the gasoline is… well, still gasoline.
Every rate cut now accelerates automation instead of job creation. Companies are basically saying, “Thanks for the cheap money, Fed! We’ll use it to replace more humans with robots.”
Follow the Digital Money Trail
But here’s where smart money is moving: if traditional jobs are disappearing, governments will eventually need new ways to get money to people. Enter digital payments and instant money transfers.
More than 130 countries are already building digital currency systems. The U.S. launched FedNow in 2023 – basically Venmo for the entire financial system. When (not if) governments start sending digital stimulus payments or universal basic income, guess who processes those transactions?
Companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and especially Coinbase are sitting pretty. Coinbase’s USDC stablecoin is already functioning as a private-sector digital dollar. They’re not waiting for government approval – they’re building the infrastructure now.
The Bottom Line
AI isn’t just changing how we work – it’s breaking the entire economic playbook. The Fed’s tools don’t work the same way, job displacement is accelerating, and digital money is becoming the new normal.
The global payments market is worth $2.4 trillion today and projected to hit $3.1 trillion by 2028. Add digital income support programs, and those numbers could explode.
So while everyone’s arguing about whether AI will take over the world, the smart money is betting on the companies that will process the payments when it does. Because if there’s one thing humans are good at, it’s finding new ways to move money around – even when robots are doing everything else.