El Paso workers are getting a crash course in what the rise of automation and generative AI really looks like on the ground: fewer contact-center gigs, thinner retail schedules, and a lot more chatbots and kiosks doing the talking. While local employees watch coworkers get reassigned or let go, the same technology that is reshaping their livelihoods is now facing fresh limits in Hollywood, where the Oscars have moved to protect human creators.
According to reporting from the El Paso Herald Post, El Paso employers recorded roughly 800 layoffs in both 2024 and 2025, with automation and corporate restructuring showing up again in recent notices. One filing shows that HGS Solutions cut 92 employees at its El Paso facility effective March 31, and regional WARN data in the Upper Rio Grande layoff summary backs up a 92-worker notice tied to HGS on March 31. Workers say the brunt of the cuts is landing in customer service and back office roles where AI tools are easiest to plug in.
Academy Puts Human Authorship At Center
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has now drawn its own line in the sand on AI. Under revised eligibility rules reported by the AP, only performances that are “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” and only “human-authored” screenplays will qualify for Oscars. The Academy also reserves the right to ask filmmakers for documentation on how generative tools were used, including a producer certification that has been informally dubbed an “Affidavit of Human Origin.” The rule change is a clear signal that the industry is worried about handing too much creative work over to algorithms, even as studios continue to experiment with them.
Numbers Vary, But Economists Warn of Broad Disruption
Zoom out from El Paso, and the forecasts are not exactly soothing. Major analyses differ on the exact numbers, but they generally agree that many jobs will be reshaped rather than simply wiped out. Longstanding work from McKinsey finds that roughly 60 percent of occupations include at least one-third of tasks that could be automated. Global agencies and trade bodies reach similar conclusions, flagging broad exposure across sectors and countries. The scenarios range from partial task automation to more sweeping substitution, depending on how quickly employers adopt new tools, and they are already shaping workforce planning and policy debates nationwide. See reporting and analysis from McKinsey and UNCTAD for the background research.
Frontline Roles Are Already Changing
For frontline workers, the shift is easy to spot. Ordering kiosks at fast food joints and self-checkout lanes at grocery stores move some of the old register work into monitoring, loss prevention, and kitchen support. Industry coverage of kiosk rollouts at major chains shows that technology often reallocates labor even as it trims certain customer-facing tasks. For one example, see reporting from CNN. At the same time, international safety and labor assessments have repeatedly tagged call centers and office support functions as especially susceptible to AI agents and automation, which raises the stakes for cities like El Paso that depend heavily on those jobs.
El Paso's Response: Retraining And Rapid Help
Local workforce officials and training programs say they are racing to keep up. They are steering more resources into short retraining courses, job fairs, and direct employer outreach in hopes of moving displaced workers into stable roles before short-term layoffs turn into long-term exits from the labor force. Regional layoff trackers and Upper Rio Grande workforce summaries are helping target outreach and match affected employees with available services. Community leaders argue that rapid reskilling and tighter coordination between employers and training providers will determine whether this wave of AI-related cuts becomes a lasting blow or a pivot into new kinds of work.
The Oscars' new human authorship rules will not bring back the jobs already lost in El Paso, but they do highlight a bigger question about which kinds of work society decides to shield from automation. For now, that debate is unfolding in policy circles and on red carpets. On the ground in El Paso, the priority is more basic: get people back into paying jobs while employers and lawmakers figure out how much and how fast to lean on AI.
