Dow Chemical says AI is the element behind 4,500 job cuts
- Reference: 1769711012
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/29/dow_chemical_ai_layoffs/
- Source link:
The thousands of employees losing their jobs are being cut as part of a rhyming companywide initiative called “Transform to Outperform” that aims to radically simplify operations, and modernize its go-to-market playbook in the hopes of achieving $2 billion in EBITDA improvement by 2028.
"The goal of Transform to Outperform is to achieve significant growth and productivity gains that elevate Dow's competitive position," said [1]Karen S. Carter , Dow's chief operating officer, in the press release announcing the initiative. "We are building on the momentum of our current self-help measures – transforming Dow into a company that is more resilient, consistently delivers growth, enables customer success, and delivers greater shareholder value across the cycle."
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Dow is one of the biggest enterprises working with Palantir rival C3 AI, which uses a digital twin to map a company, its employees, products, and its processes in a hunt to find efficiencies.
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“C3 AI has been pivotal in transforming Dow’s operations from reactive to predictive, optimizing asset performance to drive value. As we scale these solutions across Dow’s portfolio, we anticipate significant benefits,” said Debra Bauler, chief information and digital officer at Dow in a [5]June 2025 press release . “We look forward to continuing our partnership with C3 AI as we advance a world-class predictive maintenance program and uncover further opportunities to enhance efficiency, reliability, and productivity throughout our operations.”
The two companies partnered last year on a predictive maintenance solution for the petrochemical industry through Dow’s subsidiary Univation Technologies, which was allowed to license and install C3 AI products.
[6]AI and automation could erase 10.4 million US roles by 2030
[7]AI has had zero effect on jobs so far, says Yale study
[8]AI robs jobs from recent college grads, but isn't hurting wages, Stanford study says
[9]Female-dominated careers among most exposed to AI disruption
“Our work with Dow sets the standard for how industrial companies can use AI to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and optimize performance,” said Ed Abbo, Chief Technology Officer, C3 AI in the same June press release. “And this collaboration with Univation will accelerate adoption of this proven, domain-specific AI application across the broader petrochemical industry and support modernization across the market by delivering real, measurable benefits of AI at scale.”
El Reg asked Dow spokesperson to name the processes, software, and technologies that Dow plans to use to replace its employees, but the chemical giant didn't address the question.
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“Through this work, we are leveraging best‑in‑class practices from across industries and high‑impact technologies, such as automation and AI, as we radically simplify our operating model and modernize how we serve our customers,” the spokesperson told The Register .
Dow’s employee numbers have held steady to around 36,000 since 2019. While the company did hire about 2,000 new employees between 2022 and 2023, growing to 37,800, by last year that number was back down to [11]36,000 , according to annual reports and proxy filings.
Dow expects to spend $1.5 billion in one-time costs related to the job cuts with $600 million to $800 million of that going to severance for those let go, or between $133,333 and $177,777 per employee. ®
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[1] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dow-launches-transform-to-outperform-to-raise-the-competitive-industry-benchmark-for-productivity-and-growth-to-enable-improved-returns-302673865.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXvmm9rGNh2rd-GIfOfqywAAAgQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXvmm9rGNh2rd-GIfOfqywAAAgQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXvmm9rGNh2rd-GIfOfqywAAAgQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://c3.ai/univation-technologies-and-c3-ai-collaborate-to-deliver-enterprise-ai-solutions-for-advanced-predictive-maintenance-across-the-global-petrochemical-industry/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/13/ai_us_jobs_2030/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/ai_isnt_taking_people_jobs/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/ai_hurts_recent_college_grads_jobs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/female_dominated_careers_ai_disruption/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXvmm9rGNh2rd-GIfOfqywAAAgQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://s23.q4cdn.com/981382065/files/doc_financials/2025/ar/Dow_2025_ProxyStatement_Web.pdf#
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Muh china
If China is the only world power not braindead enough to dis-enfranchise its population economically while using more resources and pounding its tax base to elevate a cabal of pedophile corporate aristocrats, then maybe they should have dominance, honestly.
Re: De-intellectualisation?
That does not appear to be what is predicted here.
Dow appears to be predicting that by reducing plant maintenance, they will be able to reduce their maintenance workforce - skilled trades, not knowledge workers.
Plant maintenance is traditionally a very naively scheduled activity: just stuff like "at 1000 hours", and also disrupted by production changes. It's easy to see significant benefits from better pattern matching.
And also, FWIW, easy to see significant failures from LLM hallucinations. What kind of AI is "C3 AI"? C3 is/was mostly a "big data" analytics company, and it's not clear how much "AI" is in their AI offering.
"The jury is still out when it comes to determining how much job loss AI is causing."
Really? How much more evidence will you need??
Re: "The jury is still out when it comes to determining how much job loss AI is causing."
There is very likely a lot of "AI-washing" in these job reduction announcements.
"Our financials are getting messy so we are shrinking headcount." sounds far worse to Wall Street than "We're embracing AI and becoming more efficient!"
Obvious reaction:
Checking to make sure there are no Dow chemical processing facilities near my city.
Well that blew up fast!
"The two companies partnered last year on a predictive maintenance solution for the petrochemical industry ..."
At one point I realized I had spent half my life close enough to petrochemical plants to hear feel when they blew up. Was fortunate to have a hill between them and house so the windows didn't shatter each time.
An AI "predictive maintenance solution" scares the hell out of me. How many future new training data sets will become suddenly available before training is complete?
they can start by…
… firing the entire marketing department that came up with that slogan.
This is assuming there is still a marketing department, if there isn’t, either the CEO came up with the slogan, his kids or AI.
I’m hoping AI because if there’s one division of every corporate I’d like to see expunged, it’s marketing.
There’s something really special about marketing being entirely replaced by an LLM.
I reckon a really small model could do it, one that’ll run on a raspberry pi
Question answered
Through this work, we are leveraging best‑in‑class practices from across industries and high‑impact technologies, such as automation and AI, as we radically simplify our operating model and modernize how we serve our customers
Clearly their PR department has already been replaced by AI agents.
Indeed
> transforming Dow into a company that is more resilient, consistently delivers growth, enables customer success, and delivers greater shareholder value across the cycle."
No interest in valuing, respecting and nourishing your employees who develop and produce your products and give the company100% of its income then? No, I though not.
You were expecting a response from them that wasn't generated by their marketing AI?
These are probably the usual
Layoffs companies do, usually couched in claims that they are "increasing operational efficiency" - i.e. my bonus is dependent on earnings per share so spending less will drive up EPS and I'll make a bigger bonus. And if those layoffs hurt down the road who cares I'll be retired by then.
Claiming they are due to "AI" likely boosts the stock price more than normal layoffs, as Wall Street might see Dow not as a staid old last century industrial stock but a 21st century stock on the cutting edge of the latest technology!
De-intellectualisation?
First we had deindustrialisation - where the majority of western heavy industry was closed down, because China could do it cheaper
Now we have so much of our knowledge-workers being displaced by AI bollocks..
What happens when a) the AI bubble goes 'pop', and b) China turns out to be not so friendly..
We're fucked, is what happens