Monday.com, the Tel Aviv-based work management software company known for its colorful, customizable project-tracking boards, this week became the latest tech company to cite artificial intelligence as a factor in job cuts. On Wednesday, the company disclosed in a SEC filing that it will lay off about 20% of its workforce — over 600 employees — as part of a "restructuring plan" linked to its "ongoing transformation of its product, marketing, and go-to-market strategy." The move is designed to support "a leaner, more focused operating model" while it continues investing in its "AI-driven growth strategy."
Co-founder Eran Zinman told employees in a LinkedIn memo that the decision "was not made to reduce costs or replace people with AI." Instead, he positioned it as adapting the organization to a new AI-first vision the company unveiled roughly a year ago when it rebranded around a platform-wide AI push. Despite the cuts, Monday.com — which has two U.S. offices — expects $45 million to $55 million in net restructuring charges but still projects up to 20% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026.
According to a recent Financial Times analysis, U.S. tech companies have slashed nearly 140,000 jobs since the start of 2026. Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft alone account for almost 50,000 of those cuts as they funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into AI data center buildouts. Interestingly, the FT also found that companies citing AI as a factor in layoffs have underperformed the Nasdaq by almost 10% in the 30 trading days following their announcements, suggesting the market does not fully buy the narratives these companies are selling.
The picture is not uniformly bleak, however. The FT notes that AI-focused companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are hiring rapidly, absorbing some of the talent shed elsewhere. And within some of the very companies making cuts, headcount is shifting rather than disappearing entirely. Meta, for instance, moved roughly 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles earlier this year even as it laid off 8,000 others. Similarly, IBM says it is tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles alongside recent cuts.
Below is a running look — in reverse chronological order — at the larger tech companies that have announced significant layoffs in 2026 with AI as a stated factor.
Microsoft — July 2026. Microsoft cut about 4,800 roles, or 2.1% of its global workforce, most of them within its Xbox gaming unit. The move resets the business only three years after acquiring Activision Blizzard for $75 billion, according to the FT. Separately, the company offered voluntary buyouts without disclosing how many employees would be affected. Microsoft said the role eliminations were "not being replaced by AI" but acknowledged "AI is changing how work gets done." CFO Amy Hood noted total headcount declined year-over-year in fiscal Q3 and was expected to keep declining as the company focuses on "building high-performing teams that operate with pace and agility" amid rising AI investment.
Oracle — June 2026. Oracle disclosed in late June that it had reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees over the past 12 months — a decline of 13% — including cuts tied to AI. "The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce," the company said in an annual financial regulatory filing.
via TechCrunch AI