Monday.com is the latest tech company to blame AI for layoffs — here are 20 others

The AI Restructuring Wave

Work management software company Monday.com has become the latest tech firm to link workforce reductions to its artificial intelligence strategy, announcing plans to lay off approximately 600 employees, or 20% of its staff. In an SEC filing, the company framed the move as part of a restructuring to support an “AI-driven growth strategy” and a “leaner, more focused operating model.” This announcement places Monday.com among a growing cohort of companies, from software giants to automakers, navigating a profound operational shift as they reallocate capital and human resources toward AI development and infrastructure.

The narrative from executives is often one of strategic realignment rather than direct replacement. Monday.com co-founder Eran Zinman stated the decision “was not made to reduce costs or replace people with AI,” but to adapt the organization to an AI-first vision. This rationale echoes statements from other firms that are simultaneously investing heavily in AI while cutting staff in other divisions. Since the beginning of the year, U.S. tech companies have cut nearly 140,000 jobs, with a significant portion of those cuts occurring at firms making massive AI investments.

• Oracle: Disclosed a reduction of 21,000 employees over 12 months, stating in a regulatory filing that “adoption and deployment of AI technologies” may continue to result in workforce reductions.
• Block: Cut 4,000 jobs, with CEO Jack Dorsey noting that “intelligence tools... paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working.”
• Meta: Laid off 8,000 employees while simultaneously shifting another 7,000 into new AI-focused positions, highlighting a trend of internal resource reallocation.
• PayPal: Announced a multi-year plan to cut over 4,500 jobs while forming a new “AI transformation and simplification” team to redesign company processes.

Despite the strategic framing, the market appears skeptical of the immediate benefits. A Financial Times analysis found that companies citing AI as a factor in layoffs have underperformed the Nasdaq by nearly 10% in the 30 trading days following their announcements. This suggests investors may view the trend as a mix of genuine transformation and a convenient narrative for conventional cost-cutting. The broader impact is a significant rebalancing of the tech workforce, where companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring rapidly, absorbing talent while legacy roles are eliminated and internal teams, like at IBM and Meta, are reshuffled to prioritize AI and hybrid-cloud skills.

While companies publicly frame AI-related layoffs as strategic repositioning, the reality is a dual-track phenomenon: a necessary culling of legacy roles to fund massive capital expenditures on compute, and a genuine efficiency gain from AI tools that enables smaller, more technical teams. The market's skeptical reaction suggests investors see through the rhetoric, recognizing that these are painful, expensive transitions with uncertain near-term payoffs.