AI continues to drive job cut in big tech as automation push intensifies in Q3 2025

Imagine joining a company with high hopes, only to find three months later that your role is redundant. This was the reality for thousands of tech workers in the summer of 2025. While headlines often blame a bad economy, the cuts this past quarter tell a different, more permanent story.

Data from Layoffs.fyi shows that while Q3 saw 26,781 reported layoffs, down from 36,728 in Q2. On the surface, this looked like an improvement from the jobs lost in Q2. But a closer look reveals a more calculated strategy. Across multiple sectors, companies explicitly tied layoffs to replacing human labour with artificial intelligence. As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated plainly, "I need less heads" because AI agents now handle the work.

The Early Signals: Fintech and SaaS Set the Tone

The quarter began with a series of targeted cuts in fintech and SaaS. Clear (formerly Cleartax), one of India’s leading financial compliance startups, laid off 20–25% of its staff, about 145 employees, on August 1. Many of those affected had been hired only months earlier. Publicly, the company called it “strategic organisational restructuring,” yet employees described it as shocking, especially during India’s peak tax season.

Despite posting a 93% rise in FY24 operating revenue and a 59% drop in losses, the company was trimming human roles in favour of AI-driven efficiency. This early move signalled a shift: layoffs were no longer reactive cost-cutting measures; they were deliberate reallocations towards automation.

By mid-quarter, the wave of layoffs extended beyond India. Jerusalem-based Lightricks, known for its visual content tools, cut 15% of its staff, reallocating resources toward AI development. Meanwhile, UK HR platform Personio shed 165 employees, 10% of its workforce, as it retreated from the U.S. market.

In India, regulatory shifts accelerated reductions. The government’s ban on real-money gaming prompted a cascade of cuts. Mobile Premier League slashed about 60% of its domestic workforce, roughly 300 employees while Head Digital Works trimmed nearly two-thirds of its staff. These were decisive, immediate reductions aimed at realigning operations with new realities.

Also, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT exporter, implemented its steepest job reduction in history, letting go 19,755 employees in the ending of September 2025. The company’s headcount dropped below 600,000 for the first time since 2022. According to CHRO Sudeep Kunnumal, the cuts focused on mid- and senior-level staff affected by what he described as a 'skill and capability miss-match.'

MORE INSIGHTS ON THIS TOPIC:

• The AI funding boom is here—but most of the money is flowing to a tiny club
• Indian IT giant TCS is making its largest layoff in its history
• Amazon’s 30,000 Job Cuts Mark a New Era of Scaling with AI

Big Tech Joins the Fray

As the quarter progressed, high-profile global companies began implementing similar reductions, following the same AI-driven logic. Fiverr cut roughly half its workforce, around 250 employees, presenting it as a move toward a “leaner, faster AI-first company.” Salesforce became the poster child for this trend, reducing its customer support team from 9,000 to 5,000, which translated into at least 355 layoffs across San Francisco, Seattle, Bellevue, and Ireland. CEO Marc Benioff emphasized that AI agents had enabled these cuts, framing them as an efficiency-driven strategy rather than a financial necessity.

Google continued its quiet restructuring, eliminating over 100 roles in its cloud division, followed by at least 50 additional positions at its Silicon Valley offices. CEO Sundar Pichai had previously signaled the intent to “be more efficient as we scale up so we don’t solve everything with headcount.” Meanwhile, Meta cut roughly 600 employees within its AI unit, including its Fundamental AI Research team, to reduce layers and operate more nimbly.

Oracle filed notices for layoffs in multiple regions: 161 in Seattle, 188 in the Bay Area, 101 in Santa Clara, alongside further reductions in India and Canada. Microsoft continued its trickle of cuts, adding 42 roles in Redmond to a broader reduction of over 15,000 employees globally since May. Amazon’s reductions were the most dramatic: by late 2025, the company had announced up to 30,000 layoffs, including 14,000 corporate roles across operations, HR, devices, and AWS, attributing the cuts to pandemic-era over-hiring and a shift toward leaner management and efficiency tools.

Across sectors, companies maintained strong financial performance, proving these reductions were strategic.

The New Corporate Strategy: "AI-First" Means "People-Later"

The most significant shift in Q3 was the CEOs' candidness. The traditional corporate euphemisms of "restructuring" and "streamlining" were replaced by a startling new honesty: artificial intelligence was making human workers redundant.

The most powerful example came from the very top of the industry. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff publicly stated that AI agents had allowed him to reduce his customer support team from 9,000 to about 5,000 employees. "I need less heads," he said bluntly.

This sentiment echoed across the industry. BenchSci's CEO, Liran Belenzon, wrote in a blog post that the company now asks of every new hire, “Could AI do this?” For 83 employees, the answer was yes. Yotpo's CEO, Tomer Tagrin, while cutting 34% of his workforce, declared his belief that “tomorrow’s companies will be smaller, more focused, and much more AI-based.” He was actively building that future by dismantling his present company.

The Human Cost

Behind every percentage point lies a personal crisis. Anoop Singh, a software engineer from a top university who had joined Clear in June, was laid off in August. He took to LinkedIn, writing that the decision felt "profoundly unfair" as he "did not get a chance to prove himself."

At Oracle, anonymous employees on forums reported being let go just days before milestone work anniversaries. The roles being eliminated were majorly; customer support, sales, junior engineering–these were not the AI research positions companies were still hiring for. This showed that companies doing more with fewer people approach is becoming the standard.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Q3 2025 marks a pivotal moment for global layoffs. The tech industry is demonstrating that growth is increasingly decoupled from headcount. Companies from Salesforce to Fiverr are betting on AI to deliver scale and efficiency, leaving operational roles vulnerable.

For workers, the implication is stark: survival in tech now requires performing tasks AI cannot replicate. New graduates entering the market and experienced professionals alike might face higher expectations and fewer safe roles.

The AI-first corporate mantra is reshaping the industry—faster, leaner, and more automated. Yet, just as the industrial revolution and the internet boom of the early 2000s led to a lot of job cuts, but it also created entirely new industries and roles, AI could generate opportunities that we haven’t even imagined. Q3 was the opening salvo in a permanent redefinition of work in tech, signaling both challenge and potential for those who adapt.