JD.com's founder, Liu Qiangdong, recently stated in an internal address that the company must exhaust all efforts to secure the jobs of hundreds of thousands of employees amidst the impact of new technologies, including blue-collar workers. He also emphasized that no employees replaced by machines would be dismissed. By the end of 2025, JD.com's workforce is expected to exceed 900,000, with the majority comprising frontline staff in logistics, warehousing, and customer service. Liu Qiangdong's profound concerns highlight a pressing societal issue: as AI (Artificial Intelligence) becomes increasingly pervasive, technological displacement is inevitable. However, the livelihoods and futures of ordinary people cannot be left solely to market forces and corporate pressures; instead, a collective societal effort is required to find solutions.

From my perspective, technological revolutions possess a dual nature. The replacement of human labor by machines is an ongoing reality that will inevitably accelerate. Yet, this displacement does not necessarily lead to the complete obsolescence of human workers. Rather, it represents a structural transformation of the labor market—a process that may cause short-term unemployment anxiety but could, in the long run, unleash productivity, foster professional upgrades, and create new opportunities. For instance, when mechanical spinning machines replaced numerous manual textile workers, it initially led to significant job losses and widespread panic. However, as productivity surged and production costs plummeted, market demand was revitalized, extending the entire industrial chain. This expansion created a vast array of new roles in upstream raw material production, midstream large-scale manufacturing, downstream dyeing and finishing, and terminal trade sales, ultimately absorbing far more labor than the jobs lost to automation.

The current AI revolution may follow a similar pattern. While large models and robots are replacing some repetitive tasks, they are also giving rise to entirely new professions—such as AI trainers, data annotators, intelligent system operators, and human-machine collaboration coordinators—roles that were virtually non-existent a decade ago. Emerging industries and business models are also contributing to job growth. More importantly, technology is lowering barriers to entry, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises and even individuals to engage in more complex production activities, thereby stimulating more segmented market demands and extending industrial chains further. History may not repeat itself exactly, but the underlying logic remains consistent: while old jobs are being replaced, human creativity and time are being liberated.

Nevertheless, a gap exists between the displacement caused by technology and the emergence of new job opportunities, marked by a time lag and a skills mismatch. This transitional period cannot rely solely on individual resilience or corporate initiative. Instead, it requires a concerted effort from the education system, vocational training programs, and social safety nets to ensure that everyone affected by technological disruption has the opportunity to start anew. In other words, corporate efficiency and social employment are not mutually exclusive. Securing jobs is not merely a technical issue but a systemic challenge that demands collaboration among corporate responsibility, individual adaptation, and societal support.

At the corporate level, companies must uphold ethical standards, avoid shifting the entire cost of technological transformation onto frontline employees, and refrain from resorting to mass layoffs. Instead, they should offer internal transfers, systematic training, and income security to extend the transition period and mitigate its impact. For individuals, it is crucial to recognize that the ultimate goal of technological revolutions is not to eliminate people but to liberate them. While machines may take over certain tasks, they also free humans from arduous, dangerous, and repetitive labor, paving the way for more dignified, valuable, and hopeful lives. This requires workers to embrace change, leverage the time freed by automation, and proactively redefine their roles.

At the societal level, establishing a comprehensive support system is the core solution. This includes ensuring that education systems bridge skill gaps and that industries create ecosystems capable of absorbing displaced workers. The short-term pains of displacement must be alleviated through shared responsibility, while long-term career renewal ultimately depends on collective societal efforts.

As AI sweeps across the globe, Liu Qiangdong's concerns about "securing the jobs of hundreds of thousands of employees" are not a rejection of AI displacement nor the isolated struggle of a single company. Instead, they represent a call for a compassionate societal transition that must be undertaken collectively.