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

Monday.com Joins the List: Tech Layoffs Blamed on AI Are Accelerating

Monday.com, the Tel Aviv-based work management software company, this week became the latest major tech firm to cite artificial intelligence as a factor in workforce reductions. The company filed an SEC notice Wednesday announcing it would lay off approximately 20% of its workforce—just over 600 employees—as part of a “restructuring plan” tied to what it described as an “ongoing transformation of its product, marketing, and go-to-market strategy.” Monday.com framed the cuts as necessary to support “a leaner, more focused operating model” while continuing to invest in its “AI-driven growth strategy.”

Co-founder Eran Zinman addressed employees in a LinkedIn memo, stating the move “was not made to reduce costs or replace people with AI,” positioning it instead as an organizational adaptation to a new AI-first vision the company laid out roughly a year ago when it rebranded around a platform-wide AI push. Monday.com, which maintains 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. The contradictory signals—growth projections alongside deep cuts—are becoming a familiar pattern across the tech industry.

According to a new Financial Times analysis cited in the report, 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. The FT also found that companies citing AI as a factor in job cuts have underperformed the Nasdaq by almost 10% in the 30 trading days following their announcements, suggesting the market doesn’t entirely buy the stories the companies are telling. Monday.com appears to be the latest entry in that running tally.

The Pattern Behind the Cuts

Monday.com’s announcement reinforces a trend that has persisted throughout 2026: companies announce layoffs, cite AI as a reason (or at least a context), and then struggle to convince investors and employees that the cuts are about strategic evolution rather than cost reduction. The FT analysis suggests that investors are skeptical, and the stock performance data backs that up.

The TechCrunch article provides a running list of larger tech companies that have made similar announcements this year. Notable entries include:

• Microsoft (July 9, 2026): Cut about 4,800 roles, or 2.1% of its global workforce, most in its Xbox gaming unit. 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” amid rising AI investment.
• Oracle (June 22, 2026): Disclosed it had reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees over the past 12 months, a 13% decline. In an annual financial 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.”
• GitLab (June 3, 2026): Laid off roughly 350 workers, about 14% of its staff, to fund AI infrastructure investment and handle surging traffic from AI workflows. CEO Bill Staples said agentic workloads are “pushing competitors to the brink” and that the company had begun a “generational rebuild” of its core infrastructure to support 100x growth requirements. GitLab is also exiting 22 countries.

Each case follows a similar script: AI is presented as both a reason for organizational restructuring and a major area of new investment. Yet the scale of job cuts often dwarfs the number of new AI-focused roles created, leading to understandable skepticism from the market and the developer workforce.

What This Means for Developers

For the engineers, product managers, and technical staff at these companies, the trend carries significant implications. The message from leadership is that AI is fundamentally changing how work gets done—but the path forward is not simply about replacing humans with algorithms. Instead, it’s about reorganizing teams, shifting investments, and redefining which skills are valued most highly.

Importantly, the picture is not uniformly bleak. The FT notes that AI-focused companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are hiring rapidly, absorbing some of the talent shed elsewhere in the industry. And within some of the very companies making cuts, headcount is shifting rather than disappearing entirely. Meta, for instance, earlier this year moved roughly 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles even as it laid off 8,000 others. IBM says it’s tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles alongside recent cuts.

This suggests a bifurcation in the tech labor market: roles centered on maintaining legacy systems or performing repetitive, automatable tasks are being eliminated, while positions focused on building, deploying, and maintaining AI systems are growing. Developers who can demonstrate competence in AI tooling, prompt engineering, and integration of large language models into existing products will likely find themselves in higher demand.

One practical takeaway: the tools you choose to build with matter more than ever. As companies restructure around AI-first strategies, the ability to rapidly prototype and ship AI-powered features becomes a competitive advantage. Understanding which AI coding agents are most effective can help developers stay ahead of the curve. Our comparison of the best AI coding agents in 2026 provides a detailed look at the options available for accelerating development workflows.

The Real Cost of AI Transformation

Monday.com expects $45 million to $55 million in net restructuring charges, yet still projects up to 20% year-over-year revenue growth. That calculus—short-term pain for long-term AI-focused gain—is being repeated across the industry. Companies are spending heavily on AI data center infrastructure (hundreds of billions of dollars, per the report) while simultaneously cutting headcount to fund those investments.

The question for developers is whether these cuts will actually lead to better products and more efficient workflows. GitLab’s CEO cited agentic workloads as a key driver of infrastructure demand and claimed competitors are being pushed “to the brink.” For developers using GitLab or similar platforms, this could mean more robust CI/CD pipelines and better support for AI-driven development patterns—but only if the company executes well on its “generational rebuild.”

Similarly, the choice between specific coding tools can have a major impact on daily productivity. For teams deciding between two of the most popular options, our detailed comparison of Cursor vs. Claude Code highlights key differences in approach, pricing, and integration capabilities that can inform a strategic decision.

How to Navigate the Shifting Landscape

For developers and builders navigating this environment, several strategies emerge from the data:

• Focus on AI integration skills: Companies like Meta are moving thousands of employees into AI-focused roles. Developing expertise in areas like model fine-tuning, RAG pipelines, and AI agent orchestration will keep you relevant even as broader headcount shrinks.
• Monitor the market’s reaction: The FT finding that companies citing AI as a layoff factor underperform the Nasdaq by nearly 10% suggests that not all AI narratives are equally credible. When evaluating potential employers, consider whether their AI strategy is backed by concrete product changes or is primarily a cost-cutting justification.
• Explore AI-native companies: Anthropic and OpenAI are actively hiring. These firms may offer more stability and clearer growth trajectories than legacy tech giants undergoing messy transitions.
• Adapt tooling choices: The rapid pace of AI tool development means yesterday’s best coding assistant might already be outdated. Regularly evaluating tools like those covered in our comparisons can help maintain a competitive edge.

The Monday.com layoffs are just one data point in a larger pattern, but they underscore an uncomfortable reality: the AI transformation is creating winners and losers even within the same industry. Developers who proactively adapt their skills and tooling will be best positioned to thrive.

Source: TechCrunch. Details as reported; verify specifics at the source.