Sweeping job cuts at Big Tech companies have become an annual tradition. How executives explain those decisions, however, has changed.
Out are buzzwords like efficiency, over-hiring, and too many management layers.
Today, all explanations stem from artificial intelligence (AI).
In recent weeks, giants including Google, Amazon, Meta, as well as smaller firms such as Pinterest and Atlassian, have all announced or warned of plans to shrink their workforce, pointing to developments in AI that they say are allowing their firms to do more with fewer people.
“I think that 2026 is going to be the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work,” Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said in January.
Since then, his firm, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has axed hundreds of people, including 700 just last week.
Meta, which plans to nearly double spending on AI this year, is still hiring in “priority areas”, a spokesman said.
But more job cuts are expected in the months ahead, while a hiring freeze is in place at many parts of the firm, two people with the company told the BBC.
‘I wanted to get ahead of it’
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2025 demonstrating an unreleased version of its AI-powered smart glasses. (Reuters)
Jack Dorsey, who leads financial technology firm Block, has been even more explicit about his aims.
“This isn’t just about efficiency,” he told shareholders last month, as he announced that his company, which operates platforms like CashApp, Square and Tidal, would be shedding almost half its workforce.
“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company… A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better.”
Dorsey said he expected a “majority of companies” to come to a similar conclusion within the next year. “I wanted to get ahead of it,” he added.
Dorsey’s justifications drew plenty of sceptics, who pointed out that he has presided over at least two rounds of mass job cuts in the last two years and never mentioned AI.
But explaining cuts by pointing to advances in AI sounds better than citing cost pressures or a desire to please shareholders, says tech investor Terrence Rohan, who has had a seat on many company boards.
