For some tech firms, layoffs are a way of "continuous tuning," as business priorities change.
Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI
Microsoft's latest round of layoffs has become a familiar corporate ritual.Last week, the software giant said it would eliminate about 4,800 jobs, marking another workforce reduction, as it remains profitable and invests heavily in AI.Similar layoffs, from Amazon to Meta, have rippled across tech over the past several years, while many of those same companies amass big AI budgets.In May, Cloudflare eliminated more than 20% of its workforce. CEO Matthew Prince, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed following the layoffs, said the firm hadn't seen another US public company cut as deeply while growing by more than 30%."Yet what we did is likely going to become the norm over the next year," Prince said.It appears other companies got the memo. In May, Cisco reported record revenue for its fiscal third quarter and said it would cut nearly 5% of its workforce. In announcing the reductions, CEO Chuck Robbins said the firms that will win in the AI era are those with the discipline to "continuously shift investment" toward areas with the greatest long-term potential.Rather than waiting for certainty, many firms are making waves of job cuts as they figure out how AI will reshape their businesses.
