Layoffs Due to AI in 2026: Check List of Companies That Reduced Their Workforce Besides Oracle This Year
Oracle disclosed cutting 21,000 jobs over the past year as AI reshapes operations, joining a growing list of tech firms reducing headcount while investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Companies including Meta, Amazon, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Cisco have also announced AI-linked workforce cuts.
Oracle disclosed on Monday that it has reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees over the past 12 months, representing a 13% decline in staff. The company revealed in an annual financial regulatory filing that the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across its operations have directly resulted in these significant workforce reductions, noting that further cuts may continue as AI integration progresses.
Across the broader technology industry, this trend of culling workforces while reporting record revenues has become increasingly common, with companies frequently citing AI as both a driver of growth and a justification for staff reductions. Major firms that have announced significant layoffs this year with AI as a stated factor include GitLab, Intuit, Meta, Cisco, Coinbase, PayPal, Snap, IBM, Atlassian, Dell, Block, and Salesforce. Oracle Layoffs: Firm Cuts 21,000 Jobs As AI Reshapes Operations, Signals More Workforce Changes Ahead.
Oracle Layoffs
Oracle began notifying employees of thousands of job cuts between March 5 and March 31, 2026, via terminal emails. These reductions occurred even as the company reported $3.7 billion in quarterly net income, a 27% increase year-over-year. The savings from these cuts are being redirected toward the development of AI data centres.
GitLab Layoffs
GitLab laid off roughly 350 workers on June 3, 2026, accounting for about 14% of its staff. CEO Bill Staples cited the need to fund AI infrastructure and support "100x growth requirements." The company is exiting 22 countries and restructuring to support agentic workloads.
Intuit Layoffs
Intuit announced plans on May 20, 2026, to eliminate approximately 3,000 jobs, or 17% of its total workforce. The restructuring is focused on reducing organisational complexity and reallocating resources specifically toward AI development.
Meta Layoffs
Meta laid off about 8,000 employees between May 20 and May 21, 2026, representing roughly 10% of its workforce. While these cuts occurred, the company moved 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating the cuts were necessary because success in the AI sector is not guaranteed.
Cisco Layoffs
Cisco announced the cutting of nearly 4,000 jobs on May 14, 2026, about 5% of its workforce. CFO Mark Patterson clarified that the move was not driven by a need for savings, but rather to realign resources around silicon, optics, security, and AI.
PayPal Layoffs
PayPal announced on May 5, 2026, plans to cut over 4,500 jobs, roughly 20% of its workforce, over the next two to three years. CEO Enrique Lores stated the strategy centres on aggressively adopting AI across development processes, customer service, and risk management to simplify operations.
Coinbase Layoffs
Coinbase cut about 700 employees, or 14% of its staff, on May 5, 2026. CEO Brian Armstrong noted that AI has dramatically increased the pace of work, allowing engineering teams to ship in days what previously took weeks, necessitating a restructuring to increase efficiency.
Snap Layoffs
Snap cut approximately 1,000 full-time employees on April 16, 2026, roughly 16% of its global workforce. CEO Evan Spiegel cited AI advancements as a key driver, stating that these tools enable teams to reduce repetitive work and increase velocity across ad platforms and infrastructure.
Atlassian Layoffs
Atlassian cut about 1,600 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, on March 11, 2026. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes stated the move was to "rebalance" toward AI and enterprise sales, acknowledging that AI has changed the mix of skills required within the company.
Block Layoffs
Block cut 4,000 jobs between February 26 and February 27, 2026, reducing its workforce from over 10,000 to under 6,000. Jack Dorsey stated that AI tools, paired with flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working that fundamentally changes how the company is run.
Salesforce Layoffs
Salesforce laid off fewer than 1,000 employees on February 10, 2026. The company noted that the efficiency of its Agentforce AI unit led to a decline in support cases, meaning they no longer needed to backfill support engineer roles.
Amazon Layoffs
Amazon cut 16,000 corporate jobs on January 28, 2026, following 14,000 cuts in late 2025. CEO Andy Jassy previously indicated that as the company rolls out generative AI and agents, it expects to need fewer people for certain roles to achieve efficiency gains.
Dell Layoffs
Dell’s total workforce fell by about 11,000 jobs in fiscal 2026, disclosed in March 2026. The company spent $569 million on severance as it pivoted resources toward its AI-optimized server business, which it projects could double in revenue in fiscal 2027.
IBM Layoffs
IBM has seen rolling cuts throughout 2026, with estimates ranging from 3,000 to 9,000 U.S. positions eliminated. The company is actively replacing certain HR positions with AI agents while simultaneously tripling its entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles.
Google Layoffs
Alphabet’s Google has conducted rolling cuts through May 2026, impacting its Cloud division, Threat Intelligence Group, and Mandiant-linked staff. Outside estimates suggest between 1,500 and 3,000+ engineers have been affected through performance reviews, voluntary buyouts, and structural reorganizations.
Cloudflare Layoffs
Cloudflare cut about 20% of its workforce, or 1,100 people, on May 7-8, 2026. CEO Matthew Prince noted that the vast majority of those laid off were in middle management and administrative roles such as finance, legal, and internal auditing.
General Motors Layoffs
General Motors eliminated 500 to 600 IT jobs on May 12, 2026. While the company stated it was reevaluating workforce needs, sources indicated AI played a role in the decision to transform the IT organisation, even as the company maintained open roles in AI and autonomous vehicles.
Microsoft Layoffs
Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts between April and May 2026. While the company did not disclose the number of employees impacted, CFO Amy Hood confirmed that total headcount declined year-over-year as the company shifts focus toward high-agility teams and rising AI investment.
The ongoing wave of workforce reductions across the technology sector highlights a significant shift in corporate strategy as companies transition toward AI-driven models. While leaders maintain that these structural changes are necessary to enhance agility and support long-term growth, the trend continues to spark intense debate regarding the true impact of automation on the future of work. Layoffs and AI: Tech Workers With Low AI Usage Face 3 Times Higher Job Loss Risk, Study Finds.
As firms continue to balance the pursuit of efficiency with the management of human capital, the industry remains in a period of considerable volatility for employees worldwide.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 23, 2026 03:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).