There is no verified record of Baba Vanga predicting that artificial intelligence would wipe out human jobs. Not one authenticated transcript, not a single recording, and no documented session from the blind Bulgarian clairvoyant — who died in August 1996 — mentions anything close to AI-driven unemployment.

That has not stopped millions from sharing it anyway.

Since early January 2026, posts tying Vanga's name to fears about automation have surged on TikTok, X andFacebook. The spike came just as a brutal round of tech layoffs swept through Silicon Valley, and the two stories fused almost overnight.

Google confirmed voluntary exit packages across several divisions in late January.Microsoftshed hundreds of roles.Amazontrimmed headcount too, pointing to what it called 'operational efficiency'. All three were pouring money into AI tools at the same time.

For staff clearing their desks, the optics were grim.

Google's restructuring programme, rolled out in the final week of January 2026, was tied directly to its AI-first pivot, sources familiar with the plans told industry outlets. Microsoft's cuts ran deeper than initially reported, with an internal memo circulated in early February describing a 'strategic realignment towards AI-first workflows.'

Within days, affected employees were posting about it on LinkedIn and Reddit. Several questioned openly whether their roles had been automated rather than simply eliminated.

Recruitment analysts said the pattern is now hard to ignore. Positions in data processing, entry-level coding and customer support are increasingly handled — partly or entirely — by software. New jobs have appeared in AI oversight and prompt engineering, but not at the same pace and rarely in the same places.

'One week we were training the system,' a former data analyst at a London-based fintech firm told colleagues in late January. 'The next week, our team was told the system had made us redundant.'

Vanga, who claimed to have lost her sight in a storm at age 12, was a cultural fixture across the Balkans throughout the Cold War. Over the decades, her supporters have credited her with foreseeing theSeptember 11 attacks, theChernobyldisaster and the emergence of ISIS.

Source: International Business Times UK