Tech companies re-evaluate strategies for replacing workers with AI

Ankara/Istanbul (ANTARA) - Technology companies are recalibrating their objectives to operate with smaller teams and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) instead of hiring human labour.

Tech giant Meta, for instance, recently postponed further restructuring plans after failing to meet its efficiency targets. Meta had previously planned to lay off up to 60 per cent of employees in certain teams and delegate most tasks to AI agents. However, the company decided to cancel the plan because the expected targets were not met.

Meta halted further staff reductions following its first wave of layoffs after internal data showed that AI systems did not deliver the expected results and technical issues actually increased, as did the time employees spent resolving them. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg subsequently stated that there would be no more mass layoffs across the company this year.

A similar situation occurred at the Swedish fintech firm Klarna, which has resumed hiring human staff due to service quality issues. This follows their previous claim that their AI-based customer service system could handle the workload of hundreds of employees, leading them to temporarily halt recruitment. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski stated that the company was previously too focused on cost-cutting; the new model involves using AI to handle routine tasks while still allowing customers to speak with human customer service representatives if necessary.

Companies are not abandoning AI entirely, but the expectation that technology will replace human labour is beginning to shift. SignalFire’s 2026 technology sector employment report shows that total recruitment in large tech companies has fallen by 25 per cent compared to 2019. While the decline in software engineer recruitment was only 11 per cent, the proportion of software engineers in total recruitment actually increased from 46 per cent to 55 per cent. Jobs in AI engineering and machine learning are experiencing growth, but positions in design, marketing, and product management are seeing sharper declines.

The Stanford Digital Economy Lab found no evidence of widespread job losses due to AI across the broader economy. However, the lab’s report, based on US payroll data, found that the labour absorption rate for the 22-25 age group is lower in job types heavily impacted by AI. Researchers preparing the report stated that most of this impact is caused by companies reducing entry-level recruitment rather than widespread mass layoffs.

Meanwhile, workforce downsizing in the tech sector continues as investment in AI increases. Recent examples from Meta and Klarna, along with recent recruitment data, suggest that companies are not relying on AI to fully replace human workers, but rather to shape leaner, more technical teams that utilise AI. These examples also demonstrate clear limitations in attempts to increase productivity through AI by reducing the number of workers.