{"id":428023,"date":"2026-05-14T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428023\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:56:10","slug":"from-cisco-to-block-more-companies-are-pointing-to-ai-when-unveiling-job-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428023\/","title":{"rendered":"From Cisco to Block, more companies are pointing to AI when unveiling job cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Layoffs<\/a> have been piling up recently, especially in the tech world<\/a>. And the words \u201cartificial intelligence\u201d<\/a> are accompanying more and more notices about the cuts.<\/p>\n

That’s unnerving workers across sectors, with many fearing what the rapid adoption of AI will mean for their job prospects<\/a>. Even if AI isn’t replacing people directly, some businesses have announced reductions as they redirect money<\/a> to the technology or tout new ways to streamline operations \u2014 raising alarm about what might be left over for payrolls and future openings.<\/p>\n

But corporate explanations are often very vague. AI is rarely the sole reason companies cite when taking layoffs, with most still pointing to wider corporate restructuring or macroeconomic headwinds. Some executives have also suggested that, while they\u2019re making cuts to move around resources now, AI and its demand could open up new roles down the road. Still, it\u2019s hard to know<\/a> if that\u2019s the real driver or just the message a business wants to tell Wall Street.<\/p>\n

Regardless, here are some companies that have announced layoffs recently while at least nodding to the role of AI along the way.<\/p>\n

Cisco <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced plans to cut under 4,000 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce. The announcement arrived the same day the tech giant unveiled record revenue<\/a> for its third fiscal quarter, amid soaring demand for its AI tools<\/a> and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

CEO Chunk Robbins told employees in a memo that \u201cthe companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment” \u2014 and that meant \u201cmaking hard decisions.\u201d But he said Cisco would also help employees impacted by the cuts find new opportunities, \u201cwhether internal or external.\u201d<\/p>\n

Block <\/p>\n

Financial services provider Block in February moved to lay off more than 4,000<\/a> of its 10,000 plus employees. And the parent of payment platforms like Square and Cash App was vocal about reconfiguring to capitalize on AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,\u201d CEO Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders at the time. \u201cA significantly smaller team, using the tools we\u2019re building, can do more and do it better.”<\/p>\n

Dow <\/p>\n

Not only tech companies have pointed to AI when initiating layoffs. In January, chemicals maker Dow, Inc. announced plans to cut about 4,500 jobs<\/a> \u2014 as part of broader push to \u201cstreamline\u201d operations. That included putting more emphasis on AI and automation.<\/p>\n

Pinterest <\/p>\n

Also in January, Pinterest said it would lay off under 15%<\/a> of its workforce as the company pivots more of its money to AI. The image-sharing platform said the cuts were part of broader \u201ctransformation initiatives\u201d \u2014 which included reallocating the company\u2019s resources to AI-focused roles and prioritizing AI-powered products.<\/p>\n

Lufthansa Group <\/p>\n

Last fall, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 \u2014 pointing to the adoption of AI<\/a>, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.<\/p>\n

Cuts at Meta and other big names arrive amid broader AI ramp-up <\/p>\n

While perhaps not explicitly mentioning or tying the technology to recent layoff announcements, a host of other big names \u2014 including Meta, Microsoft<\/a> and Amazon<\/a> \u2014 are also cutting thousands of jobs while investing billions of dollars toward AI.<\/p>\n

Meta, for example, plans to lay off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, starting next week. When announcing the cuts last month, the Facebook owner more broadly cited the need to offset certain investments and broader efficiency.<\/p>\n

Still, the move arrives as Meta continues to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure and highly-paid AI expert hires. And earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2026 will be when<\/a>, \u201cAI starts to dramatically change the way that we work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Layoffs have been piling up recently, especially in the tech world. And the words…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,60129,47198,219399,111,139,69,219400,145],"class_list":["post-428023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-cisco","tag-corporate-restructuring","tag-job-prospects","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reason-companies","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}