AI Isn’t the Villain. Fear Is.

Micha Kaufman’s announcement at Fiverr is being torn apart online, but let’s be clear about what’s really happening. This isn’t cruelty. It’s clarity. He laid off 250 people and declared Fiverr will operate in “startup mode,” AI-first. Painful? Absolutely. But he acknowledged the loss, offered support, and made his case for a leaner, faster company.

I wrote back in May that Micha had urgency without a plan. Now he has one. And the reaction says more about us than about him. The comments are full of fear: fear of change, fear of irrelevance, fear of losing control. AI isn’t the villain here. Fear is. Fear stops us from listening, learning, and adapting.

AI doesn’t replace entire jobs overnight. It chips away at tasks, streamlines teams, and forces leaders to reallocate resources. Fiverr’s bet won’t be easy—AI is messy, experimental, and far from perfect at logic. But the alternative is denial, and denial doesn’t save jobs either. The real test for leaders like Micha is whether they can stand in the storm of fear and keep leading with clarity.

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