Are tech CEOs suffering from 'AI psychosis' amid rising layoffs?
box founder aaron levie coined 'ai psychosis' to describe leaders replacing staff with agents without understanding the work, as clickup cuts 22% of staff.
box founder aaron levie introduced the term 'ai psychosis' to describe leaders who aggressively replace human staff with ai agents without fully comprehending the jobs being eliminated. this critique comes alongside clickup's move to lay off 22% of its workforce to integrate ai agents, contributing to 2026 tech layoffs that already match all of 2025. the trend highlights a disconnect where decision-makers chase ai hype over practical utility, even as competitors like duckduckgo gain users by rejecting forced ai integration. these decisions raise concerns about a potential industry-wide reckoning if rushed implementations fail to deliver expected efficiency.