But 2025 was different in that sense. Several major tech companies announced thousands of job cuts with AI adoption as a key factor. AI was behind layoffs that led to at least 55,000 people being fired in the United States this year, according to a report by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

US-based companies laid off around 1,53,000 employees in October alone and another 71,000 in November 2025, with AI cited as a factor in at least 6,000 job eliminations in those months, CNBC reported.

Of course, there were other contributing factors, such as inflationary pressures and tariffs, which may have pushed companies to turn to AI as an attractive short-term solution for cost-cutting. AI tools can already do the job of 11.7 per cent of the US labour market and save as much as $1.2 trillion in wages across finance, healthcare, and other professional services, according to a recent study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Here are the top tech firms that directly linked layoffs to AI adoption.

Amazon

In October this year, e-commerce major Amazon confirmed that it will hand out pink slips to at least 14,000 people, with more job cuts expected in the coming year. At least 1,000 Indian workers of the company are likely to be impacted by the layoffs.

The layoffs, part of a broader trend, offered an early glimpse into the impact of AI on workforces this year. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before… we’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, wrote in a blog post.

A few months prior, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had warned of the cuts, telling employees that AI will shrink the company’s workforce and that the tech giant will need “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”

Microsoft

Microsoft reportedly axed a total of 15,000 jobs in 2025, with its most recent announcement in July stating that it will eliminate 9,000 roles or roughly 4 per cent of its global workforce. In May, the software giant axed over 6,000 jobs, and in June, it cut another 300. This is still the company’s second-largest round of mass layoffs, as it slashed nearly 18,000 jobs in 2014.

These layoffs were reportedly carried out across nations, and affected professionals of all levels of experience. Microsoft’s gaming studios, including Xbox, were also hit.

In an internal memo to employees, CEO Satya Nadella reportedly said that the Windows maker needed to “reimagine” its “mission for a new era”.

“What does empowerment look like in the era of AI? It’s not just about building tools for specific roles or tasks. It’s about building tools that empower everyone to create their own tools. That’s the shift we are driving — from a software factory to an intelligence engine empowering every person and organization to build whatever they need to achieve,” Nadella said.

However, Nadella also hinted that the company plans to expand its workforce again in the future. Except, these new hires will be more productive and efficient because of AI.

“I will say we will grow our headcount, but the way I look at it is, that headcount we grow will grow with a lot more leverage than the headcount we had pre-AI,” Nadella said in an appearance on a podcast hosted by Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of technology investment firm Altimeter Capital, in October.

Salesforce

Salesforce eliminated around 4,000 customer service roles. Executives directly referenced that AI agents were taking over much of the customer support workload. CEO Marc Benioff confirmed the layoffs in September this year.

“I’ve reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need fewer heads,” Benioff said in an interview on The Logan Bartlett Show podcast.

He also revealed that AI was already doing up to 50 per cent of the work at the company.

IBM

IBM announced in November that it will be letting go of thousands of employees before the end of the year. The cloud giant said it will cut jobs amounting to a “low single-digit percentage” of its global workforce. As per the latest estimates, IBM has around 2,70,000 workers globally, which means that even a one per cent cut would result in the loss of at least 2,700 jobs.

CEO Arvind Krishna reportedly told the Wall Street Journal in May that AI chatbots had taken over the jobs of a few hundred human resources workers. However, Krishna also said that the global tech giant had increased hiring in other areas that required more critical thinking, such as software engineering, sales, and marketing.

Crowdstrike

In May, cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said it would be laying off 5 per cent of its workforce (around 500 employees) and directly cited AI as being behind the job cuts.

“AI has always been foundational to how we operate. AI flattens our hiring curve and helps us innovate from idea to product faster. It streamlines go-to-market, improves customer outcomes, and drives efficiencies across both the front and back office. AI is a force multiplier throughout the business,” George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of Crowdstrike, wrote in a memo included in a securities filing.

Besides these names, Intel also said it would axe up to 24,000 jobs by the end of 2025 as part of a major restructuring that is influenced by AI and automation trends. Duolingo, the language learning app, also indicated a move away from contractors, noting AI’s ability to replace tasks previously handled by human workers.

Closer home, India’s IT services companies, once a key employment driver in the country, also saw ‘silent layoffs’ amid the fast-paced adoption of AI as well as ongoing economic uncertainty in the US. IT bellwether TCS laid off 12,000 employees, which is 2 per cent of its global workforce. The move reportedly impacted employees from the mid and senior levels. Though the company framed it as a push toward building a “future-ready generation” through “skilling and redeployment”.