California tech company Cloudflare to lay off more than 1,000 workers, cites AI
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Cloudflare is laying off 20% of its staff, the latest technology company to announce big cuts as it uses more artificial intelligence-powered tools.The San Francisco web performance and cybersecurity company said it was getting rid of 1,100 people.“The way we work at Cloudflare has fundamentally changed,” Chief Executive Matthew Prince and Chief Operating Officer Michelle Zatlyn told employees in an e-mail.
“We don’t just build and sell AI tools and platforms.We are our own most demanding customer.” It is the latest tech company this week to announce massive layoffs as tech workers embrace the use of AI agents to perform tasks such as generating code more quickly.
Coinbase said Tuesday that it would cut 14% of its workforce, or roughly 700 workers.PayPal is reportedly planning to slash 20% of its staff.Other companies such as Meta, Block and Oracle have announced layoffs this year.
From January to April, U.S.tech employers announced 85,411 job cuts, up 33% from the same period last year, outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday.
Business Thousands of tech workers have already lost their jobs this year and leaders at some companies say AI will enable employers to do more with smaller teams.Cloudflare’s email, which was published on its blog, said that in the last three months, its use of AI has jumped more than 600%.Employees in various roles in engineering, HR, finance and marketing are running “thousands of AI agent sessions each day to get their work done,” and the company has to be “intentional” as it prepares for the “agentic AI era,” the email said.Cloudflare executives added that the company is hoping to avoid further major layoffs.
“We are making these changes now because making smaller, repeated cuts or dragging a reorganization out over multiple quarters creates prolonged emotional uncertainty ...