In the past, they just call this a hiring freeze. The CEO doesn't want to admit that the company isn't doing great, so the excuse is now "you must explain why the job can't be done by AI".

I mean, if the job can be done by AI, he should go the extra step and lay off half of the employees, that's the sensible thing to do for any CEO. Why not do that today?

This is pretty dumb. I am looking forward to the news when the CEO is ousted and AI can't even save him.