"Judgment day is coming": Andy Signore issues warning after YouTube reportedly offers employees voluntary buyout following AI move

YouTube personality and pop culture commentator Andy Signore shared his reaction after reports of YouTube embracing an AI move of offering its employees a voluntary buyout had come to light. According to Deadline, the American online video-sharing platform is undergoing a staffing shakeup, offering its US-based employees voluntary buyout packages with severance.

On Wednesday, October 29, 2025, Andy Signore took to X, formerly Twitter and criticised this move. Calling out the company, the podcaster wrote:

“People don’t understand how bad it’s gonna get. The rich & powerful will reduce jobs by more than you can imagine, for crappy regurgitated content spit out by AI based on everything we’ve already seen, that no one really wants. Judgment day is coming. I wish more would revolt.”

This move comes as the company pivots to focus on artificial intelligence. Notably, CEO Sundar Pichai of Google, the platform's parent company, has also urged staff to embrace AI for increased productivity.

Meanwhile, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed in an internal memo that the online video platform, which launched in 2005, is restructuring its products team for the first time in a decade, since 2015.

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YouTube’s shift to AI explored

The YouTube logo (Image via Getty)

While the buyouts were first reported by Alex Heath at Sources, a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC:

“Looking to the future, the next frontier for YouTube is AI.”

While the company said that no roles are being eliminated as part of the change, three product groups will now report directly to CEO Neal Mohan under the new structure. Meanwhile, Christian Oestlien, who was previously the vice president of product management, will lead the subscription products division. It oversees YT Music and Premium, YouTube TV, Primetime Channels, Podcasts and Commerce.

Notably, Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich will lead the viewer products team. It covers the main app, Search and Discovery, Living Room, Kids, Learning and Trust and Safety.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter for this month’s cover story about the video-sharing platform, CEO Neal Mohan explained the AI shift. She said:

“I do think creation is an area where AI will help enormously by making the process easier, by making it more efficient faster, and also by making it more powerful. In that sense, my sort of vision around AI is it’s AI in service of human creativity, it really empowers human creativity.”

Further explaining, she added:

“I think we are in the very early days of those types of possibilities, and my hope is that it will create a lot more opportunity for that entire supply chain of creation, not just the creators at the top.”

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For the unversed, on Tuesday, Amazon announced its plans to lay off about 14,000 corporate employees, citing rapid developments in AI. The SVP of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, Beth Galetti, in a memo shared publicly, said: “The world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.”

Notably, more jobs are expected to be cut in companies across the tech industry as they reshape their workforces with artificial intelligence.

Edited by Afreen Shaikh