Boss replaced a worker with an AI avatar, argued it was a ‘real employee’ and got sued. Now he’s calling the worker’s cousin to win him back
The ex-employer wanted to shift blame onto David and his team
When a 33-year-old man named David was handed the pink slip, his manager replaced him with someone who wouldn’t need vacations, a salary, or even a lunchtime break — an AI avatar. But the company's utopian dream soon turned into a legal nightmare, as clients started complaining about discrepancies in reports. The entire system went haywire, and the corporation started experiencing catastrophic issues with the synthetic employees. Frustrated, they tried to shift blame onto David and his team. In a June 4, 2026 Reddit post, his 31-year-old cousin (u/MsRothArtist), a tattoo artist, elaborated on the entire incident. Her post has been upvoted 3,000 times.
Entitled boss fires my cousin to replace him with AI but now demands he come back so they can blame him for AI’s mistakes
by u/MsRothArtist in EntitledPeople
Replaced with AI
Between June last year and March 2026, David had been staying in the cousin’s house. In company records, her house address was registered as “his” address, and her number was registered as his emergency contact. In December, however, new management took charge and replaced some employees, including David, with AI avatars. After his termination, he returned to New Jersey and joined a new job.
Suspense building up
Nearly four months after he was fired, David's cousin received a phone call from his old manager. His manager demanded that David return to work. David asked her to ignore the call. Apparently, he had been doing the same when he received the calls and emails from the manager. He had been trying to call David, but after his calls were rejected, he reached out to his cousin, whose number was listed as an emergency contact
It turned out that just before David’s termination, around December, the company was acquired by private equity. The new management decided to rely on AI to conduct interviews, write reports, provide legal advice, and conduct sales pitches to clients. Some of the employees were fired. Not long after that, the clients started experiencing problems with false information and errors. In one instance, in particular, the company also tried to make the AI converse with clients and shareholders in place of human employees.
In disguise of human
In January, a client flew all the way from France to San Francisco to meet and speak in person with the analyst who compiled their report. David’s manager took them into a conference room and made them speak to an AI analyst on the screen. Not only that, he convinced the client that they were speaking to a real human analyst, while arguing that AI employees are still employees. So, now they were trying to get back at David by burdening him with the responsibility for mistakes he never made.
AI has been explicitly cited as the primary reason for 4.5% of announced US job cuts in 2025 and about 21% through September 2026, per Eltex. In contrast, research from SHL has identified an “AI rebounding” trend, in which corporations are rehiring workers they replaced with AI. In the US, nearly one in five workers (19%) have been asked to come back by their employers. One in thirteen (8%) expressed their unwillingness to return to their employer.
'AI screws up'
Meanwhile, readers were shocked to hear David’s experience and were forced to contemplate the growing threat of AI in the job market. u/biscottino6948 commented, “It is possible they cloned David in voice and video and then use that for all the AI-generated reports. When clients demand to speak and meet the real person, this is where the issue arises. Hence why they are desperate to bring him and appear in person.” u/Shieldor said, “So, the silver lining of AI is, when AI screws up, there won’t be any peons for management to place the blame on.”
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