Tech Layoffs, AI Productivity, UX Predictions, and Hummingbirds
Your Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
📊 AI in Healthcare
🧠 Tech Layoffs
👩🔬 AI Productivity
🤝 CEOs
📈 Anthropic
👩💼 UX Predictions
⚡️ Hummingbirds
Podcast
Harnessing AI in Healthcare: Insights from RJ Kedziora
In this episode of Product by Design, Kyle Evans interviews RJ Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda, a company specializing in custom software and data analysis for healthcare. We discuss RJ’s journey in technology and entrepreneurship, the importance of energy management over time management, and the role of AI in healthcare. RJ shares insights into the challenges and future of AI applications, the need for ethical considerations, and the potential for personalized healthcare solutions. He also offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a difference in the industry.
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News and Useful Reads
Tech Layoffs 2026: How AI Is Driving the Biggest Workforce Shakeup in a Decade
It’s difficult to say if AI is the direct cause of layoffs, even though many companies are claiming it. It seems like most companies aren’t reducing their workforces because of AI’s current capabilities, but its expected future potential.
The numbers are staggering, and they are accelerating. After 245,000 tech layoffs globally in 2025, the industry is on pace to surpass that figure before year’s end. Analysts at RationalFX project 264,730 tech job losses by December 2026 if current trends hold. What makes 2026 different from the post-pandemic correction of 2023-2024 is the reason behind the cuts: companies are not trimming excess from over-hiring cycles. They are making deliberate, structural decisions to replace human labor with AI systems — and they are saying so publicly.
AI’s Productivity Payoff Is Coming — Just Not All at Once
Most CFOs surveyed say that they have adopted AI in their companies and that it’s making workers more productive. But that isn’t being reflected in the actual data, which is why I’m skeptical. Because what else would CFOs who have invested money in a technology say?
A majority of firms have already invested in artificial intelligence, with measurable but modest productivity gains that are expected to accelerate in 2026, according to a new survey of nearly 750 corporate executives.
As AI Investments Surge, CEOs Take the Lead
CEOs, unsurprisingly, are taking the lead on AI, or at least telling their teams they have to adopt AI in some way. You know, “leading.”
Many large companies have a new Chief AI Officer—and it’s the CEO. Nearly three quarters of CEOs say that they are their organization’s main decision maker on AI, twice the share as last year.
US judge blocks Pentagon’s Anthropic blacklisting for now
A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield.
18 UX Predictions for 2026
Accelerating AI capabilities will shift focus from raw intelligence to autonomous agents and Generative UI, making UX the primary business moat.
Other Interesting Finds
Hummingbirds can see colors that humans can’t.
Colorblindness is relative. Just as we can perceive hues that dogs can’t, hummingbirds can see colors that humans can’t. Whereas the three types of color-sensitive cone cells in our eyes allow us to see red, green, and blue light, hummingbirds (and most other birds) have a fourth type of cone attuned to ultraviolet light.