By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 26, 2026
Unionized employees at Conde Nast, which includes brands like Vogue and Vanity Fair, walked off the job in protest of looming layoffs — © AFP ANGELA WEISS / File
As the end of January 2026 beckons, mounting warnings from business leaders and economists suggest that artificial intelligence is accelerating workforce disruption across the global tech sector.
This comes after a year marked by widespread job cuts, companies are increasingly restructuring around automation, machine learning and efficiency gains, placing not just individual roles at risk, but entire job functions.
To better understand the scale of this shift, a new report, which reveals the depth of tech industry layoffs around the world in 2025. The report comes from the firm RationalFX, who compiled layoff data from multiple verified sources, including U.S. WARN notices, TrueUp, TechCrunch, and the Layoffs.fyi tracker.
According to the data, there were 244,851 tech layoffs worldwide during the year. Of these, 69,840 roles, around 28.5% of the global total, were cut due to company restructuring and the expanding use of AI.
The largest AI-related job losses were recorded by Amazon, one of the world’s biggest technology firms, which eliminated around 14,000 roles, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with 12,000 layoffs, and Accenture, which reduced its workforce by approximately 11,000 positions, all linked to AI implementation and organisational restructuring.
Despite a relative slowdown in overall tech layoffs compared with 2024, when roughly 281,000 tech jobs were cut, 2025 stands out as a turning point, with AI emerging as a central driver of workforce reductions across the wider tech industry.
Tech companies with the most layoffs due to ai implementation in 2025Amazon – 14,000 layoffs
TCS – 12,000 layoffs
Accenture – 11,000 layoffs
IBM – 9,000 layoffs
HP – 6,000 layoffs
Salesforce – 4,000 layoffs
Duolingo – 2,000 layoffs
Workday – 1,750 layoffs
OpenText – 1,600 layoffs
Autodesk – 1,350 layoffs
Amazon led all companies in number of AI-related job cuts in 2025, eliminating around 14,000 roles in late October as it accelerated the integration of artificial intelligence across its operations. Other major employers also carried out large-scale AI-driven layoffs, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which cut 12,000 positions, and Accenture, which reduced its workforce by approximately 11,000 roles, all as part of broader AI implementation and organisational restructuring efforts. The trend has continued into 2026, with Meta recently announcing plans to cut around 1,500 roles as it shifts focus from long-term metaverse hardware projects, particularly VR and AR devices, towards AI-driven products and next-generation data infrastructure.
In addition, across all firms, global tech layoffs surged in 2025, with at least 244,851 employees losing their jobs worldwide as companies unwound pandemic-era over-hiring and restructured around artificial intelligence. An estimated 69,840 of these layoffs were directly linked to AI and automation, accounting for roughly 28.5% of the total and highlighting how rapidly firms are shifting toward AI-first operating models.
The report also reveals that the U.S. remained the epicentre of the layoffs in 2025, accounting for approximately 170,630 job cuts, nearly 70% of the global total, as American tech giants led investment in AI while simultaneously reducing headcount across engineering, support and corporate functions.
In terms of the future, AI-driven workforce disruption is set to intensify in 2026. The IMF has warned that ‘most countries and most businesses are not prepared’ for the pace of AI adoption, while employee concerns about AI-related job losses have jumped from 28% in 2024 to 40% in 2026. Investors are increasingly prioritising companies that provide systematic AI upskilling, signalling that effective workforce transition strategies may become a key factor in capital allocation decisions.
January 26, 2026
Unionized employees at Conde Nast, which includes brands like Vogue and Vanity Fair, walked off the job in protest of looming layoffs — © AFP ANGELA WEISS / File
As the end of January 2026 beckons, mounting warnings from business leaders and economists suggest that artificial intelligence is accelerating workforce disruption across the global tech sector.
This comes after a year marked by widespread job cuts, companies are increasingly restructuring around automation, machine learning and efficiency gains, placing not just individual roles at risk, but entire job functions.
To better understand the scale of this shift, a new report, which reveals the depth of tech industry layoffs around the world in 2025. The report comes from the firm RationalFX, who compiled layoff data from multiple verified sources, including U.S. WARN notices, TrueUp, TechCrunch, and the Layoffs.fyi tracker.
According to the data, there were 244,851 tech layoffs worldwide during the year. Of these, 69,840 roles, around 28.5% of the global total, were cut due to company restructuring and the expanding use of AI.
The largest AI-related job losses were recorded by Amazon, one of the world’s biggest technology firms, which eliminated around 14,000 roles, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with 12,000 layoffs, and Accenture, which reduced its workforce by approximately 11,000 positions, all linked to AI implementation and organisational restructuring.
Despite a relative slowdown in overall tech layoffs compared with 2024, when roughly 281,000 tech jobs were cut, 2025 stands out as a turning point, with AI emerging as a central driver of workforce reductions across the wider tech industry.
Tech companies with the most layoffs due to ai implementation in 2025Amazon – 14,000 layoffs
TCS – 12,000 layoffs
Accenture – 11,000 layoffs
IBM – 9,000 layoffs
HP – 6,000 layoffs
Salesforce – 4,000 layoffs
Duolingo – 2,000 layoffs
Workday – 1,750 layoffs
OpenText – 1,600 layoffs
Autodesk – 1,350 layoffs
Amazon led all companies in number of AI-related job cuts in 2025, eliminating around 14,000 roles in late October as it accelerated the integration of artificial intelligence across its operations. Other major employers also carried out large-scale AI-driven layoffs, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which cut 12,000 positions, and Accenture, which reduced its workforce by approximately 11,000 roles, all as part of broader AI implementation and organisational restructuring efforts. The trend has continued into 2026, with Meta recently announcing plans to cut around 1,500 roles as it shifts focus from long-term metaverse hardware projects, particularly VR and AR devices, towards AI-driven products and next-generation data infrastructure.
In addition, across all firms, global tech layoffs surged in 2025, with at least 244,851 employees losing their jobs worldwide as companies unwound pandemic-era over-hiring and restructured around artificial intelligence. An estimated 69,840 of these layoffs were directly linked to AI and automation, accounting for roughly 28.5% of the total and highlighting how rapidly firms are shifting toward AI-first operating models.
The report also reveals that the U.S. remained the epicentre of the layoffs in 2025, accounting for approximately 170,630 job cuts, nearly 70% of the global total, as American tech giants led investment in AI while simultaneously reducing headcount across engineering, support and corporate functions.
In terms of the future, AI-driven workforce disruption is set to intensify in 2026. The IMF has warned that ‘most countries and most businesses are not prepared’ for the pace of AI adoption, while employee concerns about AI-related job losses have jumped from 28% in 2024 to 40% in 2026. Investors are increasingly prioritising companies that provide systematic AI upskilling, signalling that effective workforce transition strategies may become a key factor in capital allocation decisions.
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