Intuit Says It's Laying Off 10 Percent of Workforce Because of AI

Intuit's stock dropped 3% after the announcement, suggesting that the financial markets do not share the company's optimistic public relations positioning, because of the broader concerns about AI's economic prospects in addition to the widely known problems corporations are having in finding new employees with the requisite skills to upgrade their AI performance. JL 

Rocio Fabro reports in Quartz:

Intuit  is planning to lay off 1,800 employees, or 10% of its workforce, only to rehire new people in engineering, product, and customer facing positions. The Mountain View, California-based firm will also be shuttering its Boise, Idaho and Edmonton, Alberta locations. Intuit's chief (claimed) the layoffs are not about cutting costs, but about reallocating capital towards its “most critical areas,” including AI. Intuit owns a number of financial and tech products, including MailChimp, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma. The company’s stock ticked down more than 3% following the announcement.

Intuit is undertaking a corporate reshuffling to turbocharge its artificial intelligence plans.

 

The financial technology firm is planning to lay off 1,800 employees, or 10% of its workforce, only to rehire approximately 1,800 new people in engineering, product, and customer facing positions, Intuit said Wednesday. The Mountain View, California-based firm will also be shuttering its Boise, Idaho and Edmonton, Alberta locations, which together housed 250 employees.

 

In a letter to employees, Intuit chief Sasan Goodarzi underscored that the layoffs are not about cutting costs, but about reallocating capital towards its “most critical areas,” including AI.

“Intuit is in a position of strength; we have the strategy and momentum that we need to succeed,” Goodarzi said. “To fulfill our mission to power the prosperity of our customers around the world and strengthen our leadership position, we must accelerate our innovation and investments in the areas that are most important to our future success.”

As part of the cuts, the company said it has “significantly raised the bar on our expectations of employee performance, resulting in approximately 1,050 employees leaving the company who are not meeting expectations and who we believe will be more successful outside of Intuit.” It also trimmed down its executive headcount by about 10%, consolidated technology roles to key sites, and eliminated more than 300 positions across the company.

Despite the cuts, the company plans to grow its overall headcount in the 2025 fiscal year and beyond, Goodarzi said. Intuit owns a number of popular financial and tech products, including MailChimp, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma.

Intuit said it is planning to accelerate investing in data and AI as well as its engineering hiring to continue developing its generative AI-powered financial assistant, Intuit Assist, and other customer-oriented solutions.

The company’s stock ticked down more than 3% following the announcement.