RoundTalk

Will AI take our jobs? What the latest news says

English · B1 worksheet Based on the RoundTalk episode of

Free for classroom use. Students listen to the first 75 seconds and read the beginning of the debate, then work on the tasks. The answer key is on the last page. The panelists are fictional characters with AI voices.

Episode page
1 · Listen (first 75 seconds)

2 · Read

Host

Hello and welcome. We're talking about something that's stopped being a maybe and started being a now: AI is actually cutting jobs right now, not just in ten years. The numbers are real—116,000 announced cuts in 2026 alone—but here's the thing: the gap between the panic and what's actually happening on the ground is huge. So today we're asking the hard question: where exactly is AI killing jobs, and where are we just getting scared of shadows? To dig into this, I've got Marcus Chen with us, a labor economist who's spent twelve years tracking how automation really reshapes work, David Harrow, a union organizer representing workers in finance and customer service who's been fighting these battles since 2024, and Rachel Okafor, a tech recruiter who's watched the hiring shift firsthand—senior roles booming while entry-level vanishes.

Host

Marcus, let's start with the numbers. Amazon cut 16,000 jobs but hired 4,000 AI engineers. Is that substitution or just reshuffling?

Marcus Chen

Neither, honestly. Sixteen thousand out, four thousand AI engineers in — different people, different skills. The ones who leave don't become AI engineers. That's a structural problem, not one job replacing another.

Host

Rachel, you're placing people every day. When Amazon says they're hiring AI talent, who actually gets those jobs?

Rachel Okafor

People who already have AI experience get those jobs. Senior people. I've literally seen this happen. A team manager applies. The system asks for five years of machine learning. So the first step up is gone, Marcus.

David Harrow

No, no, wait — it's worse than gone. One of my members, a bank call centre in Leeds. Twenty-two years old, three years there, trained the AI tool herself. Then they cut her team. That's not restructuring.

Key vocabulary

  • layoffs — permanent termination of employment for groups of workers
  • headcount — total number of employees in a company or department
  • tracking — monitoring or following something over time
  • forecast — prediction about what will happen in the future
  • structural — relating to the fundamental organization or system

Comprehension questions

  1. According to Marcus Chen, why is Amazon's situation a structural problem?
  2. What does Rachel Okafor say about entry-level job opportunities in AI?
  3. Why does David Harrow think the situation in the Leeds bank is worse than restructuring?
  4. What is the Host's main concern about the AI job crisis?
  5. How does Rachel Okafor describe the hiring patterns she has seen?

True or false?

  1. Amazon hired more workers than it cut in 2026. T / F
  2. Marcus Chen believes workers who lose jobs can become AI engineers with training. T / F
  3. David Harrow represents workers in the finance and customer service industries. T / F
  4. Rachel Okafor says that entry-level positions require less experience than senior roles. T / F

Discuss in pairs

  1. If companies need AI engineers but workers with traditional jobs cannot become engineers, what do you think should happen? Who has responsibility to solve this problem?
  2. Do you think it is fair that one person can train an AI tool and then lose their job because of it? What would be fair?
  3. The Host says 116,000 jobs were cut in 2026, but we only heard about Amazon, one bank, and some hiring patterns. Do you think we have enough information to understand the real problem?

The whole debate, free every day Students can hear the full 6-minute episode with a synced transcript in the RoundTalk app.

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store

Answer key

Comprehension
  1. Because the 16,000 workers who left are not the same people as the 4,000 AI engineers hired, so workers lose their jobs but do not get new ones.
  2. Entry-level jobs are disappearing because companies require five years of experience even for first steps up.
  3. Because the worker trained the AI tool herself and then lost her job, which shows AI is replacing workers rather than just changing their roles.
  4. The gap between public panic and what is actually happening is very large, and we need to find where AI is really destroying jobs.
  5. Senior roles are growing while entry-level positions are disappearing.
True or false
  1. False
  2. False
  3. True
  4. True

roundtalk · https://www.getroundtalk.com/listen/english/b1/will-ai-take-our-jobs-what-the-latest-news-says/worksheet/