Eric Siu explains why employees are leaving stable companies in 2026: organizations move too slowly on AI adoption. Companies over-focus on safety and approval processes while employees want faster implementation. The gap between company caution and worker ambition is driving the exodus.
I'm saying in this last week, holy shit, right? Like literally in the last week, I feel like I've advanced like a couple years. Like it's warp speed now, right? And so what Neil's saying is true. There are people even on X, let's use X as an example, right? So there are large enterprises that are actually blocking products like Claude Code from being used because security, there's a lot of approvals and things like that. I will say because we're still on this recruiting push right now, when I'm talking to people right now, they're seeing the stuff I'm posting on AI and they're reaching out. I'm talking to these people. I'm like, why are you looking to leave this company right now? It's like some of them are coming from publicly traded companies. I'm like, why leave? Like it's so stable. It's a good job. It's like we're moving too slowly, right? Implementation's too slow. I talked to some someone else just on Monday, and he's at this agency. Let's say they have like, you know, 200 people or so. And I'm like, why are you looking to leave? He's like, we said we're gonna move quickly on AI, but we're talking about safety and all these things, and I'm just not interested.
