Extract from Michael Gennaro’s article “AI Is Outpacing the Systems Built to Govern It, Stanford Report Finds”
Artificial intelligence is being used in nearly 90% of organizations, has drawn $286 billion in private investment and has reached a level of popular use faster than any technology in modern history. What hasn’t kept pace, according to Stanford University’s ninth annual AI Index, is nearly everything built to govern it.
For employment and labor attorneys who have spent recent years fielding theoretical questions about AI displacement, the 2026 report offers something more concrete to work with. Employment for U.S. software developers ages 22 to 25 fell nearly 20% from 2024, even as head count for older developers continued to grow, a bifurcation the report attributes directly to AI’s measurable productivity gains in software development, which the report put at 26%.
One-third of organizations surveyed expect AI to reduce their workforce in the coming year, with the steepest anticipated reductions in service operations, supply chain, and software engineering. The report notes that across nearly all business functions, anticipated reductions outpace those already observed, suggesting the legal exposure from AI-justified workforce decisions is more likely to grow than to stabilize.
