CRISIS KIT PRO™
Crisis playbook — free

You're announcing layoffs. Because of AI.

This is the most reputationally dangerous announcement of 2026. AI is now the most-cited reason for U.S. job cuts — and the internet has developed a very sharp nose for companies blaming the robot. Done well, it's a hard decision communicated with dignity. Done badly, you're next week's case study.

First: the next 15 minutes

Before any announcement: align leadership on the true reason (one sentence, honest), have counsel review the plan, and prepare the three documents — the internal announcement, the individual conversations script, and the public statement. In that order.

Say nothing publicly yet. Nothing you publish in the next 15 minutes fixes this — but one wrong sentence lasts forever. Then:

Score the severity — free, 2 minutes
What NOT to do
  • Blame 'AI' when the reason is financial — nearly 6 in 10 companies admit to framing layoffs as AI-driven when they aren't, and journalists now check. If it's money, say it's a business decision.
  • Use dehumanizing language — 'lower-value human capital,' 'obsolete roles,' 'AI does their job now.' A Fortune-500 CEO publicly apologized for exactly this in 2026. Every word will be read by the people being let go AND the people staying.
  • Announce via email/text or let people find out from locked accounts — an HR-tech company told 500+ staff by text message in 2025 and became the cautionary tale.
Your likely lane

Lane: this is internal-first. Employees hear it from you, individually, before anything is public. Publicly it's a narrow Acknowledge — honest reason, humane process, what's being offered (severance, support, reskilling). If AI genuinely replaces the work, say so plainly; if it's really cost-cutting, saying 'AI' anyway is a Clarify crisis waiting to happen.

Not sure which lane? Run the 60-second lane picker →

This page is the first aid kit. The full system is the hospital.
The Crisis Kit Pro™ gives you the fill-in-the-bracket templates for this exact scenario, the six-factor severity calculator, the approval workflow, and the hour-by-hour plan — $149 USD one-time payment.
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Other scenarios:

A negative review is going viralA journalist wants comment by morningAn ex-employee is making allegationsProduct outage or failureYou made a public mistakeA co-founder dispute is going public

Educational guidance, not legal advice. If safety, money, data, or legal rights are at stake, involve qualified counsel before any public statement.