Picture this: you’re a mid-level project manager at a growing tech firm. You’ve survived three rounds of “restructuring,” earned good performance reviews, and just renewed your lease close to the office. Then the email arrives. Not from your manager – from HR. The subject line reads: Organisational changes to support our AI-first future.
That scenario is no longer hypothetical. It’s playing out across some of the most recognisable names in the technology industry, and Monday.com’s recent announcement has added another chapter to what is becoming one of the defining workforce stories of our era.
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The Monday.com Moment – And Why It Matters Beyond Tech
In mid-2025, Monday.com joined a growing list of tech companies citing artificial intelligence as a contributing factor to significant headcount reductions. The work management platform announced layoffs affecting a meaningful portion of its workforce, with leadership pointing to AI-driven efficiencies as part of the rationale.
It barely made a ripple in the wider news cycle – because by now, we’ve heard this story so many times.
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A Running Look at the Companies That Got There First
Here, in reverse chronological order, is a snapshot of some of the larger tech names that have announced notable layoffs in recent times, with AI cited as a factor or strategic driver:
1. Monday.com – 2025; AI efficiency cited alongside restructuring
2. Duolingo – 2025; publicly stated it was replacing contractors with AI
3. Klarna – ongoing; CEO stated AI is doing the work of 700 customer service agents
4. Salesforce – announced hiring freezes and reductions tied to AI productivity gains
5. IBM – paused hiring in departments where AI could handle tasks
6. Google (Alphabet) – multiple rounds of cuts across engineering, hardware and ad sales teams
7. Microsoft – thousands of roles reduced across various divisions amid AI investment
8. Amazon – reduced corporate headcount while investing heavily in AI infrastructure
9. Meta – cut thousands of roles, with Zuckerberg explicitly linking to AI reorganisation
20. Dropbox – laid off staff specifically citing AI’s impact on its core product roadmap
11. Chegg – significant job cuts after citing AI (particularly ChatGPT) for declining usage
12. Workday – reduced headcount while accelerating AI feature development
13. Domo – restructuring tied to automation and AI-led product shifts
14. Zendesk – workforce reductions framed around AI-powered customer service capabilities
15. SAP – announced thousands of job cuts while repositioning around AI
16. Intuit – let go of employees in roles deemed replaceable by AI tools
17. Automattic – notable restructuring with AI productivity referenced
18. BT Group – committed to workforce reduction with AI and automation as key drivers
19. UPS – cut corporate roles as AI and automation reshape logistics operations
20. Fiverr – CEO wrote an open letter warning freelancers about AI replacing their work, followed by its own internal reductions
This is not an exhaustive list. It is, however, a signal – and a loud one.
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What the Pattern Is Actually Telling Us
There’s a temptation to read these headlines and conclude that AI is simply destroying jobs. The reality is more nuanced – and more useful to understand if you’re running a business.
What’s happening in most of these cases is a convergence of three forces:
1. Genuine productivity gains from AI tools. Tasks that previously required a dedicated team – content moderation, customer support triage, code review, data entry – can now be handled faster and cheaper with AI assistance. That’s real. It’s not spin.
2. Investor pressure to demonstrate AI ROI. Publicly traded companies are under enormous pressure to show that their AI investments are paying off. Reducing headcount is one of the most visible (and financially legible) ways to demonstrate that.
3. Strategic repositioning. Companies aren’t just cutting – they’re reshaping. Many of the same firms announcing layoffs are simultaneously hiring AI engineers, machine learning researchers and prompt specialists. The workforce isn’t shrinking uniformly; it’s being restructured.
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The Practical Implications for Your Business
If you lead a business – whether it’s a 12-person agency or a 500-employee manufacturer – here’s what this pattern should prompt you to think about seriously.
Don’t wait for a crisis to audit your processes
The companies caught flat-footed are those who never asked: which parts of our operation could AI handle better? Conducting an honest internal audit of repetitive, high-volume or rules-based tasks is not optional anymore. It’s basic strategic hygiene.
Reskilling is cheaper than rehiring
The businesses navigating this transition most effectively are investing in upskilling existing staff – not replacing them wholesale. Teaching your finance team to work with AI-assisted reporting, or helping your customer service staff use AI to handle Tier 1 queries, is a far more sustainable path than a disruptive redundancy cycle.
Communicate clearly with your team
One of the most damaging things happening inside these large tech firms is the erosion of trust. When employees find out about AI-driven role changes through a press release, it creates fear and disengagement across the board. If you’re exploring AI adoption, bring your team into the conversation early. Explain what you’re exploring, what it means for their roles, and what your commitments are.
Adopt with intention, not panic
There’s a real risk of companies making rash decisions – cutting teams prematurely, adopting tools without strategy, or chasing cost savings without considering the service quality implications. The businesses getting this right are moving deliberately: piloting AI in contained areas, measuring outcomes, and scaling only what works.
At Elyxia Digital, our advisory work through Elyxia AI is built around exactly this philosophy – helping businesses understand where AI genuinely adds value before they restructure anything around it.
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The Bottom Line
Monday.com’s announcement is not an isolated event. It’s the latest data point in a clear trend: AI is reshaping the economics of knowledge work, and major technology companies are responding with speed and, in many cases, bluntness.
But the lesson for business leaders isn’t AI will replace your people. The lesson is: AI is changing what roles look like, what skills are valuable, and how organisations need to be structured. The companies that treat this as a sudden crisis will make reactive decisions. The ones that treat it as a rolling, manageable transformation will come out ahead.
The signal is clear. What matters now is what you do with it.
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