Is AI the reason, or the cover story? A case that tech layoffs are really about cheaper labour abroad

SBS News in South Korea reported on 18 September 2026 that AI is being used as an explanation for tech layoffs that are really driven by cost. The piece is built on an interview with Moon Sung-wook, chief executive of Teamblind, the company behind the workplace app Blind, who argues that expensive US roles are being cut and the work picked up by far cheaper teams overseas: people working at high cost in the United States are laid off, he says, and the work returns to India. The article cites the growth of Global Capability Centres, with hiring in India up 69% over seven years while US tech employment fell, and Blind's own platform reach across South Korean and Silicon Valley employers. It names Amazon Games among companies where staff say departments were replaced outright. Treat the specific claims as one executive's account rather than established fact - Blind has an interest in the argument, and none of it is an employer's own attribution. It matters because it is the sharpest version of a question this site has to keep asking: when a company says AI, is AI what actually happened?