Monday.com Joins Tech Layoff Trend Citing AI as Factor

{ "TITLE": "Monday.com Cuts 20% of Staff as AI-Driven Layoffs Sweep Tech Sector", "BODY": "Monday.com became the latest technology company to shed workers in the name of artificial intelligence, announcing layoffs of approximately 20% of its workforce—just over 600 employees—as part of a restructuring plan tied to its AI strategy.\n\nThe Tel Aviv-based work management software company said the cuts are part of an "ongoing transformation of its product, marketing, and go-to-market strategy." The move comes roughly a year after Monday.com rebranded around a platformwide AI push.\n\nCo-founder Eran Zinman announced the layoffs to employees via a LinkedIn memo, insisting the decision "was not made to reduce costs or replace people with AI," but rather to focus on "building high-performing teams that operate with pace and agility."\n\nMonday.com expects to incur between $45 million and $55 million in net restructuring charges from the cuts. Despite the workforce reduction, the company projects up to 20% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026. Monday.com maintains two offices in the United States.\n\nThe layoffs are part of a broader and accelerating trend across the technology industry. According to the Financial Times, 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.\n\nThe FT also found that companies citing AI as a factor in job cuts underperformed the Nasdaq by almost 10% in the 30 trading days after their announcements, suggesting investors are skeptical of the narrative.\n\n## The AI Layoff Wave: A Running Tally\n\nThe Monday.com announcement adds to a growing list of technology companies that have cut thousands of workers this year, with artificial intelligence cited as a primary driver. The picture is not uniformly bleak—AI-focused companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are hiring rapidly—but the scale of reductions is striking.\n\nMicrosoft cut approximately 4,800 roles on July 9, 2026, representing 2.1% of its global workforce. Most of the cuts hit the Xbox gaming unit, which Microsoft acquired as part of its $75 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard three years prior. The company also offered buyouts structured as voluntary separations during April and May. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said total headcount declined year-over-year in fiscal Q3.\n\nOracle disclosed on June 22, 2026, that it had reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees over the past 12 months, a 13% decline. The company began cutting thousands of jobs via terminal emails in March 2026. In its annual filing, Oracle stated: "The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce."\n\nDespite the cuts, Oracle posted $3.7 billion in quarterly net income, up 27% year-over-year, and its remaining performance obligations surged 325% to $553 billion.\n\nGitLab laid off approximately 350 workers, or 14% of its staff, on June 3, 2026. The company is exiting 22 countries, flattening management layers, and partnering with an unspecified AI lab. GitLab reported Q1 revenue of $264 million, up 23% year-over-year, and expects $30 million to $35 million in restructuring costs. CEO Bill Staples cited "agentic workloads" pushing competitors.\n\nGoogle cut employees across its Cloud division, including the Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant, in cuts that continued through May 2026. Google Cloud revenue grew 63% to exceed $20 billion for the first time, and its backlog nearly doubled to over $460 billion. The company cut more than a third of managers overseeing small teams—a 35% reduction in managers with fewer direct reports. Google never announced a single overall cut number, but outside estimates put the 2026 total at 1,500 to 3,000-plus engineers.\n\nIntuit announced plans to eliminate approximately 3,000 jobs, or 17% of its workforce, on May 20, 2026. CEO Sasan Goodarzi announced a restructuring centered on AI.\n\nMeta laid off approximately 8,000 employees, or 10% of its workforce, on May 20-21, 2026. At the same time, the company moved approximately 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles, though those employees reportedly hate the assignments. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the cuts were necessary because "success isn't a given" in AI.\n\nCisco announced it was cutting nearly 4,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, on May 14, 2026. CFO Mark Patterson said: "This was really not a savings-driven restructure… this is more [about] realigning … resources around silicon, optics, security and AI."\n\nCloudflare cut approximately 1,100 people, or 20% of its workforce, on May 7-8, 2026. The company reported Q1 revenue of $639.8 million, up 34% year-over-year, its highest single quarter in company history. CEO Matthew Prince wrote that "the vast majority of those we laid off last week were measurers"—referring to middle management and similar roles.\n\nGeneral Motors eliminated 500 to 600 IT jobs on May 12, 2026. AI played a role but was not the only reason, according to the company, which described the move as "transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future." GM had roughly 80 open IT positions after the cuts, including roles in AI, motorsports, and autonomous vehicles.\n\nCoinbase cut approximately 700 employees, or 14% of its staff, on May 5, 2026. The company flattened its organizational structure to five layers below the CEO and COO and plans to experiment with "one-person teams" combining engineering, design, and product. CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that "engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks."\n\nPayPal announced plans to cut approximately 20% of its workforce—north of 4,500 jobs—over two to three years on May 5, 2026. The company formed a new "AI transformation and simplification" team reporting directly to the CEO. CEO Enrique Lores told investors the company would "aggressively adopt AI" and "leverage AI across every facet of our jobs."\n\nSnap cut approximately 16% of its global workforce, or about 1,000 employees, on April 16, 2026, and closed more than 300 open roles. CEO Evan Spiegel cited AI advancements as the key driver: "Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers."\n\nIBM has been conducting rolling cuts, with cumulative totals since September 2024 above 15,000. Estimates for U.S. position cuts in 2026 range from 3,000 to 9,000. IBM replaced approximately 200 HR positions with AI agents while tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles. The company described Q4 2025 cuts as "routine rebalancing."\n\nAtlassian cut approximately 1,600 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, on March 11, 2026. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said: "Our approach is not 'AI replaces people.' But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does."\n\nDell saw its workforce fall approximately 10% in fiscal 2026, a reduction of about 11,000 jobs, bringing headcount to roughly 97,000 from 108,000. The company spent $569 million on severance. Dell projected AI-optimized server revenue could double in fiscal 2027.\n\nBlock cut 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, on February 26-27, 2026, dropping to under 6,000 employees from over 10,000. CEO Jack Dorsey wrote: "We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company." He added: "I think most companies are late. Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes."\n\nSalesforce laid off fewer than 1,000 employees on February 10, 2026, following an earlier cut of approximately 4,000 customer-support roles, which reduced that team from about 9,000 to roughly 5,000. CEO Marc Benioff said the company needed "less heads" because AI agents handle the work: "Because of the benefits and efficiencies of Agentforce, we've seen the number of support cases we handle decline and we no longer need to actively backfill support engineer roles."\n\nAmazon cut 16,000 corporate jobs on January 28, 2026, following 14,000 cuts in October 2025—a total of 9% of its corporate workforce in three months. CEO Andy Jassy said AI would reduce the corporate workforce over the next few years.\n\n## Shifting Headcount, Not Just Cutting\n\nWithin some companies making cuts, headcount is shifting rather than disappearing entirely. Meta moved approximately 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles while laying off 8,000 others. IBM is tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles alongside its cuts.\n\nThe companies funneling hundreds of billions of dollars into AI data center buildouts are also hiring in specific areas. AI-focused companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are absorbing talent from the layoffs.\n\nCoinbase CEO Brian Armstrong described the restructuring as "strengthen[ing] our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy."\n\nAtlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes acknowledged the complexity of the shift: "Our approach is not 'AI replaces people.' But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does."\n\nDell's workforce reduction of about 11,000 jobs in fiscal 2026 brought headcount to roughly 97,000 from 108,000, a 10% decline. The company spent $569 million on severance. Dell projected AI-optimized server revenue could double in fiscal 2027, indicating where the company is placing its bets.\n\nBlock CEO Jack Dorsey offered a stark prediction: "I think most companies are late. Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes."\n\nSalesforce CEO Marc Benioff was blunt about the impact of AI on his company's hiring: "Because of the benefits and efficiencies of Agentforce, we've seen the number of support cases we handle decline and we no longer need to actively backfill support engineer roles."\n\nAmazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI would reduce the corporate workforce over the next few years, following cuts of 16,000 corporate jobs on January 28, 2026, and 14,000 cuts in October 2025—a total of 9% of its corporate workforce in three months.\n\n## Market Skepticism\n\nThe Financial Times analysis suggests the market does not entirely buy companies' stories about AI as a layoff factor. Companies citing AI in their job-cut announcements underperformed the Nasdaq by almost 10% in the 30 trading days after the announcement, according to the FT.\n\nOracle's stock has performed well despite its cuts, buoyed by strong earnings. The company posted $3.7 billion in quarterly net income, up 27% year-over-year, and its remaining performance obligations surged 325% to $553 billion.\n\nCloudflare reported its highest single quarter in company history with $639.8 million in revenue, up 34% year-over-year, even as it cut 20% of its workforce.\n\nGitLab's revenue grew 23% year-over-year to $264 million in Q1, even as it laid off 14% of its staff.\n\nGoogle Cloud revenue grew 63% to exceed $20 billion for the first time, and its backlog nearly doubled to over $460 billion, even as the company cut more than a third of managers overseeing small teams—a 35% reduction in managers with fewer direct reports.\n\nThe pattern suggests that many of these companies are cutting costs in some areas while investing heavily in AI infrastructure and hiring in others. The question for investors and employees alike is whether the strategy will pay off.\n\n## The Human Cost and Corporate Messaging\n\nMonday.com co-founder Eran Zinman's LinkedIn memo insisted the decision "was not made to reduce costs or replace people with AI," but rather to focus on "building high-performing teams that operate with pace and agility." The company expects to incur between $45 million and $55 million in net restructuring charges from the cuts.\n\nDespite the workforce reduction, Monday.com projects up to 20% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026. The company maintains two offices in the United States.\n\nCisco CFO Mark Patterson described his company's nearly 4,000 job cuts as "really not a savings-driven restructure… this is more [about] realigning … resources around silicon, optics, security and AI."\n\nCloudflare CEO Matthew Prince wrote that "the vast majority of those we laid off last week were measurers"—referring to middle management and similar roles.\n\nCoinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that "engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks." The company flattened its organizational structure to five layers below the CEO and COO and plans to experiment with "one-person teams" combining engineering, design, and product.\n\nPayPal CEO Enrique Lores told investors the company would "aggressively adopt AI" and "leverage AI across every facet of our jobs." The company formed a new "AI transformation and simplification" team reporting directly to the CEO.\n\nSnap CEO Evan Spiegel cited AI advancements as the key driver: "Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers."\n\nIBM replaced approximately 200 HR positions with AI agents while tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles. The company described Q4 2025 cuts as "routine rebalancing."\n\nGeneral Motors eliminated 500 to 600 IT jobs on May 12, 2026, describing the move as "transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future." GM had roughly 80 open IT positions after the cuts, including roles in AI, motorsports, and autonomous vehicles.\n\n## Related on Neura Market\n\n- AI Infrastructure Spending Tracker\n- Tech Layoff Tracker 2026\n- Enterprise Software Earnings" }