Global businesses are moving toward artificial intelligence with rising frequency as they eliminate staff, stoking widespread fears that human workers will progressively lose their livelihoods to automated systems.

Corporate giants such as Microsoft, Barclays Bank and grocery retailer Kroger are part of an expanding group of firms that have reported AI-driven lay-offs this year, including positions deemed redundant and roles shed to fund technology deployment.

Yet this wave of downsizing, which has impacted tens of thousands of employees, occasionally features an unexpected epilogue.…