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Retirement experts are seeing a noticeable uptick in tech professionals choosing to step away from their careers sooner than planned, driven in large part by the rapid shift toward artificial intelligence.
Jennifer Kerns, 60, is one of them. After more than 30 years in tech — including 25 as a contractor at Microsoft and most recently as a program manager at GitHub — she retired in March. Her post-retirement plans include trips to Mexico, California, and Cape Cod.
While Kerns had already been considering retirement, several factors accelerated her decision. Her leadership chain had largely departed over the prior couple of years, her youngest child was aging out of the family insurance plan, and AI had become the company’s all-consuming priority.
“That was really it for me,” she told Fortune. “I don’t buy into AI. I think it’s a bubble that’s going to burst.”
Kerns, who considers herself creative, wasn’t primarily worried about job displacement or learning curves. Instead, she simply didn’t want to engage with a technology that “offends” her at this stage of life. Faced with either embracing AI or walking away, she chose the latter.
A Growing Trend in Tech
Her story is part of a broader pattern. According to an Allianz Life study from May, 42% of Americans retire earlier than they intended, even as the average retirement age has remained relatively stable between 62 and 64. While health issues and family caregiving are common drivers, workplace changes have become a major catalyst in tech.
Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, notes that the industry’s revolutionary shift toward AI is forcing many veteran workers to reconsider their futures.
“The tech industry is going through a revolutionary period... that really causes people toward the end of their careers to really come to the forefront,” he said.
The Unique Pressures on Tech Careers
Steve McConnell, a retirement planning advisor and founder of Rain Dog Financial, has observed this trend intensifying since the pandemic. Many workers re-evaluated priorities after remote work and strong market gains made early retirement more feasible. But tech professionals face distinctive challenges.
Over the span of Kerns’ career, the field has cycled through desktop computing, the internet, mobile, cloud computing, and now AI. Each wave demands significant effort to master.
“For tech people, one of the distinctive features is that the learning curve... can be a lot of effort,” McConnell explained. At some point, many must decide whether to ride the next wave or step off.
Financial advisor Kevin Estes adds that leaving now often means accepting you may not easily return. “You may not be able to get back on the merry-go-round,” he tells clients. With AI adoption accelerating, re-entering the workforce could leave workers disoriented if they’ve stepped away from the latest tools and practices.
Many, like Kerns, are simply skeptical. “Many people believe it’s overblown,” Estes said. While AI offers some productivity gains, they question whether it truly delivers when building complex code, systems, or processes.
Buyouts and Industry Impact
Some early exits are being accelerated by corporate incentives. In April, Microsoft offered its first voluntary buyout program, targeting employees whose age plus years of service totaled 70 or more. The move reportedly affected about 7% of its U.S. workforce and made retirement decisions easier for some.
Experts are divided on the long-term effects. On one hand, replacing higher-paid veterans with lower-cost entry-level talent helps companies control expenses — a strategy aligned with IBM’s plans to triple entry-level hiring.
However, Jennifer Kerns and others worry about the loss of mentorship and institutional knowledge. Without seasoned engineers, building strong leadership pipelines could prove difficult. Steve McConnell raises a deeper concern: losing senior judgment at a time when AI is still in its infancy.
“I am concerned about the loss of judgment by losing a cohort of senior engineers... We are at risk of losing some of the senior judgment and knowledge that really... is necessary for ensuring that AI matures healthily.”
Silver Linings
Not all impacts are negative. Robert Laura, cofounder of the Retirement Coaches Association, points to the economic boost from retirees. AARP data shows adults over 50 contributed $12.5 trillion in economic activity in 2024, a figure projected to nearly double by 2060 through spending on travel, healthcare, and more.
Many retirees also don’t fully exit the workforce. They often pursue meaningful part-time roles, volunteering, or new fields. Older adults provided $1.2 trillion in unpaid care and volunteering in 2024 alone.
“They’re happy to work for something they enjoy for less — retire from their primary career, but not from work,” Laura said.
As AI continues reshaping tech, the decisions of veterans like Jennifer Kerns highlight a human side to technological disruption: sometimes the best response is knowing when to step away.