#ai

Two established cybersecurity companies, Rapid7 and Snyk, have recently implemented job cuts as they navigate the evolving threat landscape. These reductions come as both organizations welcome new leadership focused on adapting to the rise of artificial intelligence. The industry faces pressure from AI-powered threats and the need to integrate AI for operational efficiency. Newer, AI-native competitors are emerging, challenging established players to innovate. These layoffs reflect a broader industry trend of adapting to technological advancements and market pressures.

Boston, MA

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/14/business/rapid7-layoffs-snyk-cybersecurity-jobs/

The most productive thing you can do today? Embrace JOMO. We’ve all been raised on FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), but in the corporate world, FOMO is just a polite term for a bottleneck.

If you feel the need to be in every 30-person meeting to "stay aligned," you aren't leading; you’re hovering. If you need to be CC'd on every email thread to "feel informed," you aren't empowering; you’re slowing the engine.

At Verizon, we are architecting an AI-enabled ecosystem to eliminate "the mundane". But tech alone won't give us speed. We need a cultural pivot from "Agreeable to Accountable".

JOMO - The Joy of Missing Out —is the ultimate leadership flex. * It’s the joy of trusting your team to take "Total Ownership" of the talent lifecycle without you in the room.

When we stop trying to be everywhere, we finally give our leaders the space to be innovative and quick. Speed doesn't come from more eyes on a project; it comes from fewer, more decisive ones.

Let’s stop rewarding "presence" and start rewarding "impact."
Who’s brave enough to decline that 4:00 PM "update" meeting and trust the team to handle it? That’s the BOLD standard.

#Leadership #JOMO

This will be a giant black (or brown in his case. . .) mark on the AK regime. Thankfully, there's no way they can keep AK in-charge for much longer after this historical disaster.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/ibm-shares-sink-18-on-earnings-warning-d115d564

Weakness in infrastructure arm was worse than anticipated, as clients shifted spending to hardware and memory

By: Robbie Whelan and Robb M. Stewart |
Updated July 14, 2026 10:52 am ET

International Business Machines shares sank as much as 25% in morning trading after the company issued a profit warning citing a shift in customer spending from software to AI hardware and memory chips.

IBM said the performance of its software and infrastructure business fell short of expectations in the second quarter, and the company didn’t react quickly enough to changing market conditions. Tuesday’s share decline was the largest intraday percentage decrease for the company on record.

Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said in a letter to investors that the weakness in IBM’s infrastructure arm was worse than anticipated, driven by a shortfall in demand for the z17, the company’s flagship enterprise mainframe designed for the artificial intelligence age. The company expects infrastructure revenue to fall 7%, after previously anticipating a low-single-digit decline.

The rapid rise of AI caught makers of memory chips, especially the building blocks of high-bandwidth memory known as DRAM and the short-term flash memory known as NAND, off guard. That led to a capacity crunch that has pushed up prices on a wide variety of products—from laptops and gaming consoles to AI data-center servers—as much as 20% to 40% over a short period of time.

Big enterprise customers like banks—a core customer base for IBM—are particularly susceptible to fluctuations in chip prices because they buy an enormous amount of computing power from cloud companies to run in-house tools.

Consumer-facing companies are also feeling the crunch. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said price increases for its devices, including the iPhone, were unavoidable. “There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal in an exclusive interview.

IBM said it plans to report revenue of $17.2 billion and adjusted earnings of $2.93 a share for the June quarter. Both figures are short of analysts’ expectations of $17.9 billion and $3.01 a share.

Its pretax income margin is expected to have contracted 90 basis points, to 14.4%.

IBM is scheduled to release its official second-quarter figures next week.

Krishna said that in the past few weeks of June, clients shifted their quarterly capital expenditures toward servers, storage and memory to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of anticipated price increases.

“While we anticipated some supply chain-related impact in our expectations, we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritization,” Krishna said.

“These conditions require our teams to execute perfectly, and this quarter we faltered,” Krishna said. He explained that IBM didn’t adapt and move quickly enough, and a number of large deals failed to close on the timelines expected.

“IBM got hit with a triple whammy,” Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said in a note to clients Tuesday. “The AI buildout is concentrating capex in hardware like memory chips and diverting spend from software and services. Markets are going to punish legacy players showing signs of losing ground in the AI race.”

Bourne predicted that as more customers shift away from software as a service to more enterprise AI, investors could see more quarters like this one: “But I think it’s a disruption story, not necessarily an extinction one for legacy software companies. Spending patterns will shift from the present focus, and the vendors that adapt their products to the changing market will stay competitive.”

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/ibm-sends-shockwave-through-tech-industry-ai-warning

Published: July 14, 2026 9:25am EDT

Seems like yes layoffs are coming at some point based on what Lanell is saying. A lot of language around "roles shifting" and that "decisions will be made as we learn more"

Between that and AI this company is really trying it's absolute hardest to run itself into the ground.

From Bloomberg (paywalled)

“You really don’t need the latest cutting-edge, incredibly expensive model to summarize an analyst report,” Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said on an analyst call Tuesday after the firm reported its second-quarter results. “So the idea is use the right model for the right purpose.”

bwahahahahahaha.

Charlie Scharf: oh yeah? Hold my beer while I tokenmaxx.

Twenty-six employees of Meta Platforms have filed a novel lawsuit accusing the tech giant of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities ‌or who took medical leave in selecting workers for mass layoffs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/meta-used-ai-target-workers-135207675.html

How can fiscam justify the push of AI now that the costs are becoming clearer?
Another cost to drive share price much lower!

Just make sure to use the proper pronouns.

😂

Something that executives probably are not telling you is their concern as to the unexpected costs by AI providers (vendors) for AI tokens.

AI is today actually more costly than human beings workforce performing the same tasks.

Now I know they have been telling you that their goal for AI is not to replace anyone but rather to assist them in their daily work to focus on higher learnt daily tasks. Well, that is simply an outright lie (or fabrication if I am to be more civil in my wording).

They most definitely want to replace you!

Unfortunately for them, they probably had to ramp up letting persons go before AI had “learned” everything simply because AI is costing large corporations way more monies than they anticipated. So, to keep stock prices up and shareholders happy, they have had to earlier than anticipated had to layoffs folks to offset tje high AI costs.

Notice nothing has been said yet about the true customers (aka the members) as to how things will affect them. That is because members are not even in the equation (the thinking mindset) of the executives, as to their decision making.

Over 2,600 companies have initiated layoff events impacting more than 230,000 employees in 2026. This trend, while significant, shows a 40% decrease compared to the same period in the previous year. Artificial intelligence is frequently cited as the primary reason for these workforce adjustments. However, some analyses suggest that cost-cutting and restructuring may be the underlying drivers. The technology sector has experienced the most substantial job cuts, though manufacturing, retail, and financial services have also seen reductions.

United States

https://eciks.org/13243-29978-employee-layoffs-2026-230000-workers

Many technology firms are implementing frequent workforce reductions, often termed "continuous tuning," as they navigate evolving business priorities and invest heavily in artificial intelligence. This trend, observed across major companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, signifies a shift from cyclical layoffs to a more persistent strategy. Companies cite the need to reallocate resources towards AI development and adapt to technological advancements as primary drivers for these adjustments. While some layoffs are attributed to post-pandemic restructuring, the increasing mention of AI alongside workforce cuts on corporate calls highlights its growing influence. Experts suggest this approach, driven by uncertainty and competitive pressures, is likely to become a norm in the tech industry.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-tech-companies-keep-doing-layoffs-ai-2026-7

I am just a T3 employee do I don't know who is going to be laid off. But I am super frustrated with the current messaging by upper management in all areas.

Design has become super important and we are hiring designers like crazy. This should not be the case because design is one of the areas where we need less people as AI has made prototyping easier.

Developers are super important and I hope they don't cut any. Not because I am a developer but because a conventional developer is not equivalent to an AI developer and almost no one gets this. As a tech company, we need more developers not less.

Development Managers is a really bad role now. This used to be a role consisting of developers who wanted to be managers as well. And they are supposed to be able to "develop" their reports from a technical perspective. But a majority of these new development managers from HPOM are not technical at all and don't understand the basics. We now have product owners, agile coaches and even retail managers and DEI coaches as development managers. SAP is increasing the number of development managers of poor quality with no added benefit.

We need more QA colleagues.

AI cannot replace support colleagues and we need to find a more sustainable way to deal with this.

And we probably should replace all executives with AI because they don't seem to do anything for the benefit of customers or stakeholders. They are too obsessed with getting their pensions.

Tokenmaxxing is the Silicon Valley trend of maximizing AI token consumption as a proxy for productivity.

Do you think we will see layoffs this year? Or is the only way out to quit? With all the work there is I can’t imagine there will be any layoffs. They’re even taking work from other locations and need to hire. Even AI is causing more work.

The office is already dead/empty. Curious if they'll sublet one or more of BR's 7 buildings in order to make it feel less like a ghost town? "Don't miss your friends and colleagues, you've got all these new ENERGIZED people to sit and discuss AI with!"

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the body overseeing the implementation of United States monetary policy, has announced the creation of five task forces intended to evaluate and improve the Fed's operations. In a press release, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh named the "external advisers" who will lead each task force, ranging from economics professors to AI investors and corporate executives—executives like Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who will preside over a task force on employment and productivity.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/us-federal-reserve-taps-xbox-ceo-asha-sharma-who-just-laid-off-3-200-employees-to-lead-task-force-on-jobs/

Our area executive has informed several managers that they can encourage employees to cut their hours to avoid layoffs, transitioning from full-time to part-time contracts. SAP HR has engaged McKinsey & Company to determine which employees will be let go, focusing primarily on full-time positions. By reducing hours, employees can sidestep impending layoffs, but the situation is more complex.

Area executives are pushing this strategy not just to save jobs but to illustrate that full-time employees are less favorable compared to part-time workers in the context of AI, which is expected to enhance productivity. While the desire to avoid layoffs is strong, there is a moral dilemma in participating in a scheme that seems designed to benefit only McKinsey and the executives, who stand to gain financially from the layoffs.

Previous layoffs at SAP cost the company €2.5 billion, with minimal savings as funds were redirected to executive bonuses, share buybacks, and AI expenses.

In Germany, refusing to accept reduced hours could jeopardize welfare benefits, complicating the decision further. The question remains: how will you respond if your manager suggests reducing your hours?

Honestly-the uncertainty of this company will greatly improve with new leadership who already know our clients, products and technology. I loved ML but I don’t think he had the tools to manage such a complex environment from a technology perspective. I never knew Dvy but was excited and petrified of her AI roll out plan, she was only here 6 months so not much time to make any meaningful changes. I’m glad we can now roll out AI with a little more thoughtful approach internally. I believe we finally have the right C suite in place -they are far from perfect, But having the understanding of internal Fiserv is a huge knowledge bonus! These guys now have the authority to make the necessary changes Fiserv clients have been looking for in breaking down silos within the company. Clients need to know that this is a really a good thing! Moving forward truly as one Fiserv! Finally!

On LTL they said something about a big AI announcement coming in September. Anyone know what it could be?

I’ve got a feeling that as AI invoked layoffs pick up, we will see a rise in white collar unions. Anyone here open to starting a trend here?

Lumen Technologies has confirmed significant layoffs impacting its Global Partner Solutions team. Approximately 90 employees were affected by these cuts, which occurred early this month. The company stated these changes are necessary to align its workforce with evolving business needs and strategic priorities. This marks the second major layoff for Lumen this year as it shifts focus towards network-as-a-service offerings. The company is prioritizing AI infrastructure and deemphasizing legacy products like voice services.

United States

https://www.channeldive.com/news/lumen-confirms-cuts-to-commercial-organization/824897/

The United States is experiencing a significant surge in tech industry layoffs, accounting for the vast majority of global job reductions. Oracle has emerged as the largest contributor, responsible for nearly 20% of all tech job cuts this year. Major companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are also implementing workforce reductions, often citing AI integration as a driving factor. These layoffs are part of a broader industry trend toward restructuring and optimizing operations for future growth. The phenomenon highlights a global recalibration within the tech sector, with the US at its epicenter.

United States

https://www.thehrdigest.com/tech-layoffs-in-2026-arent-slowing-down-us-remains-the-epicenter/

The downgrade reflects rising business risk and weaker cash flow driven by a massive, capital-intensive AI infrastructure buildout and high customer concentration (e.g., OpenAI). The rating outlook remains stable.

https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/-/view/type/HTML/id/3592348

From Google AI itself (word for word): the model can confidently predict an incorrect relationship between ....

A week or so ago I had asked Google about wood flooring (for a potential remodel), specifically some details about standard wood floor thicknesses today versus what might be seen in older homes. At one point in the Google AI response, it came back stating 7/8 inches was smaller than 3/4 inches. Of course, I challenged this and Google corrected itself with an explanation of why it happened. I wish I had captured the response back then, but I was able to coax Google to explain the error again. Below is Google's response:

Why The Error Happened
The mistake occurred because large language models (LLMs) do not naturally perform mathematical operations the way a computer calculator does.How I Process Text: LLMs predict the next most likely word or token based on patterns in data.The "Token" Problem: Because fractions like 7/8 and 3/4 are read as text patterns rather than numerical values, the model can confidently predict an incorrect relationship between them based on how they appear in sentences.The Missing Step: I failed to run the background Python interpreter to convert those fractions into decimals (0.875 versus 0.75) to verify the math before outputting the answer.Without that code execution check, the text generator generalized incorrectly, leading to that math error.

Understand, Dan (and cronies)?

Texas universities are launching new bachelor's and master's degree programs in Artificial Intelligence to equip students for a rapidly evolving job market. These programs often combine AI expertise with traditional disciplines like business and engineering. Despite companies slowing hiring due to AI uncertainty, these degrees aim to provide graduates with specialized skills. Universities are responding to industry demand, with Texas leading the nation in AI degree offerings. Graduates hope their practical AI applications will differentiate them in a competitive employment landscape.

Dallas, Texas

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/texas-universities-offer-ai-degrees-to-boost-value-for-students

Oracle has eliminated 21,000 jobs in fiscal year 2026, attributing the reductions to AI investments. This move has significantly impacted employee morale and trust across the tech industry. The company's annual filing explicitly stated that AI adoption may continue to lead to workforce reductions. These layoffs are part of a larger trend where companies are citing AI as a justification for significant job cuts. The financial cost of these layoffs, including severance packages, has also been substantial.

https://www.thehrdigest.com/oracle-layoffs-2026-why-tying-job-cuts-to-ai-is-fueling-fear-of-endless-reductions/

I've always believed Dan was brought in to be the fall guy for what the board really wanted to do. At least from a reduction standpoint. I think the never ending focus on AI is more him than the board because he sees himself as a visionary. Or he wants to be seen/remembered as a visionary. That said, the one thing I heard consistently (in addition to being a hatchet man), was that Dan was not a fan of outsourcing, yet we continue to do it. Why?

So has he really changed his methods or is this more the board's decisions and he's just the face of it now...? Did AI make him do it?

Management is rolling out a brand-new "Competency Model" framework for upcoming mid-year reviews that completely changes the rules of our jobs right after a massive layoff. They are introducing a mandatory "AI Competency" metric, requiring everyone to use AI tools daily and even "configure simple agents" just to be rated as "Effective" in their roles. This is a transparent move to force a smaller, surviving workforce to use automation to absorb all the leftover work from our departed colleagues. By rushing this out by August 31 alongside mid-year "goal adjustments," management is building a paper trail that redefines what it means to do your job well. If you don't adopt these new automated workflows, they can mark you as underperforming even if you are doing your core job perfectly, creating a loop hole for them to shift to performance-based terminations instead of layoffs so they can dodge paying severance down the road. Just when you think they can’t go any lower, they now want to take away severance pay

Why are they sending emails about mission simplify like it's some fun thing!? And mentioning AI training. I'm disgusted at how tone deaf these communications are. People are stressed out!!!! It's hard enough to keep working without getting these emails so if they arent going to tell us useful information, they need to shut the f up about it and let people attempt to work in peace.

A lotof cliches can be said so I'll spare you the boredom.

They did it again, stakeholder value was retained for a quarter at a cost of competency.

We knew this comany is not here to innovate, I mean the top product is a cheap SharePoint variant and the latest innovation is AI tool that saves you time in copy-paste, if you are willing to spend 6600$ a month to host it.

No one in OT asks themselves why other companies make money while we are not, they ask how can we milk a 30 year old tech with minimal effort and here we are, 2% down anda new announcement that now, this time, finally, for sure - will succeed because the problem was expensive employees not 8ncompetent accountants.

Ever heard about 3% YOY growth that never happens? Yes!
Ever heard about analysts that get fired for getting it wrong? No!
The OT way.. a graveyard for auccessful tech for sale.

Thoughts on anyone who just attended the town hall? What a load of BS. I am sure all the staff on the call appreciated the UM Tech slide and AI taking over their jobs. Questions in the chat on VSP, were responded with VSP is not part of this presentation, we have no further updates to share, appreciate this is a stressful time and the VSP decision is a personal one. Basam and team could not be anymore disrespectful. So disingenuous to your valued employees. Disgraceful!!!

SV was concerned and confused about the fact that 105 people voted on the Slido question...ELT will lie to our faces and call us crazy for questioning them

Quote from earnings call:

"While we continue to drive ASV growth, we are focused on capitalizing on our scale to deliver long term sustainable and profitable growth. To that end, we have launched a range of strategic projects aimed at running FactSet with greater discipline and efficiency. Sanoke outlined multiple productivity, but from an operational standpoint, I will highlight 2 items we initiated during Q3 and completed in the past few weeks. We recently rightsized certain engineering teams as we standardize how we build and run software and take advantage of AI assisted coding. Additionally, we entered into an arrangement with RepRisk to support our clients' needs as we discontinued the signals attribution service FactSet provided following the 2020 acquisition of Truvalue Labs."

Is burning AI tokens being monitored, if yes, is it the once on hyperspace being monitored or even usage of EKX counts

• Stopped using Scrum @ Scale and reorganized teams → "industry-wide" TDD initiative.
• Continuous release date slippage → mandatory weekend work.
• Core Shanghai teams axed with little to no notice → work shifted to other geos; quality suffered
• AI must be used X hours per day & new work requires AI readable specs or out - Project Maverick
• On site junior engineers welcome; remote senior years get the boot

Despite these changes, little is being done to address the fundamental issues within the product development process at its core: Isilon OneFS has been in maintenance mode for over a decade. AI spending extended product life support temporarily, but this shift to layoff remote US staff truly signals the end of the product.

Legaltech startup Darrow has laid off approximately one-third of its staff, impacting around 60 employees. This significant reduction includes many legal analysts who were instrumental in developing the company's AI platform. Despite being profitable for three consecutive years, Darrow cited market evolution and technological advancements as reasons for reorganization. The company aims to become a more agile and multidisciplinary organization to support future growth.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hy7svt97ge

Verizon is doing INCREDIBLY well. Maybe the greatest corporate success anyone has ever seen. People come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, “Sir… how do you lay off thousands of people while the stock keeps going down?” I say, “It’s called winning. You wouldn’t understand.”

The Fake News says, “The stock is down.” Wrong! It’s a beautiful strategic decline. Very advanced. The smartest people are saying they’ve never seen anything like it.

Every week there’s another reorg, another layoff, another AI announcement. Tremendous momentum. Nobody restructures better than Verizon. Nobody. Believe me.

More information will be shared via emails regarding Project Fuji which is actually a continuation of Project Mongoose but with a different name. Lots of discussions between HR and the Betriebsrat this time and the HR definitely won.

The works council just approved the layoff of 8000 of 14000 jobs that Christian Klein and Dominic Asam wanted. This will happen gradually and all hiring managers are supposed to give preference to internal candidates first. Anyone who has been found to not use AI in the last many months or isn't deemed AI ready will have to undergo compulsory training or face layoffs. They are going to add more sections in Performance Management and force all employees to have an AI related goal. Managers make the final decision on whether employees are AI ready or not and this will impact the HOW and WHAT scores.

But this is devastating news nonetheless. I can't wait for my non-technical development manager to tell me that I am not burning enough AI tokens on something frivolous. She uses them all the time to create presentation graphics and vibe coding and none of that is actually creating any value for SAP customers. But she's an AI star now and actually "coaches" developers on how to use AI in day-to-day life.There are also discussions ongoing with the supervisory board to increase share buybacks and the dividend in the upcoming quarter. HR wants to use "any money saved through layoffs and performance management" to be used towards this.SAP is on track to become one of the worst companies to work for.

After another round of layoffs ( people who worked over 10 yrs have been layed off shortly after they were celebrated by the upper management although there are seemingly a lot open positions suitable). Offshore colleagues are being solely treated as numbers and laid off - still we are expected to perform even more because of "AI"...