The cost of building out the infrastructure needed to satisfy booming demand for artificial intelligence is changing the way major companies allocate resources. That can mean an end to some jobs once done by humans. Yet in many cases it means repurposing money once spent on workers so that more capital can be devoted to boosting AI capabilities. Just how much money is being spent on AI is a hot topic as fears of a bubble in the sector grow, but the potential impact on workers in some sectors is clear. Here’s a look at some of the companies that have announced layoffs or hiring reductions this year that are tied in some way to massive spending on AI. Barclays The U.K. bank and financial services company revealed in a quarterly financial report this week that it is looking to cut 5,000 jobs, or about five per cent of its workforce. The company said that it was seeking “organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI.” Approximately 60 per cent of the cuts will be from support functions, including developers. Financial institutions are among the most active in deploying AI, in many cases at the expense of workers. Norway’s DNB and Commerzbank in Germany have also announced job cuts in parallel with a push into AI. Kroger Kroger said last week that it will lay off 3,000 corporate employees over the next three years as the national grocery chain ramps up its use of artificial intelligence. “Technology is reshaping what’s possible,” CEO Greg Foran wrote in a memo to employees. “The way work gets done is changing across every industry; we must adapt and take advantage of technology. We need to adopt capabilities, reduce duplicative work and look closely at where work is best fit to be done.” Kroger last month outlined its AI strategy, meant “to improve the customer experience, make work easier for associates and produce better business outcomes.” The Cincinnati company is the largest standalone U.S. supermarket chain with 409,000 employees and more than 2,700 stores operating under various brands, including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith’s and Fred Meyer. Meta The company that runs Facebook and Instagram said it would lay off about 8,000 workers, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires. The company said in April that it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled. Meta had already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to as much as US$169 billion — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence experts it’s been hiring. Microsoft Software giant Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees. The company planned to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7 per cent of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly. Microsoft has spent billions of dollars operating an ever-expanding global network of data centres powering cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot. Standard Chartered The U.K.-based bank is planning to cut more than 15 per cent of its back office employees by 2030. Standard Chartered said in May that it was “scaling practical uses of automation, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to streamline processes, improve decision‑making and enhance both client service and internal efficiency.” Coinbase The cryptocurrency trading platform is cutting approximately 14 per cent of its workforce partly due to AI. In a blog post, CEO Brian Armstrong said that AI was changing the way that Coinbase worked. “Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks,” he wrote. “Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what’s possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it’s accelerating every day.” Armstrong said that the company needed to take action. “We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native,” he wrote. Pinterest Pinterest announced in January that it planned to lay off under 15 per cent of its workforce as part of a broader restructuring as the image-sharing platform pivots more of its money to artificial intelligence. In a securities filing, the company said that it was making the cuts to support “transformation initiatives” — which include reallocating resources to AI-focused roles and prioritizing AI-powered products. It said it was also working to reshape its “sales and go-to-market approach.” Snap The owner of social media platform Snapchat is eliminating about 16 per cent of its global workforce, or about 1,000 jobs. “The headcount reduction is designed to further streamline our operations and reallocate resources toward our highest-priority initiatives, leveraging increased operational efficiencies to accelerate our path toward net-income profitability,” the company said in a regulatory filing. CEO Evan Spiegel said in a letter to staff in April that another 300 open roles would not be filled. Block Financial technology company Block is laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees, reconfiguring to capitalize on its use of artificial intelligence. “The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders in Block, the parent company to online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better,” he said. Dorsey’s comments explicitly naming AI as a key driver behind the decision were also posted on X, or Twitter, a company he co-founded. The announcement has sent shares of the company sharply higher this year, up 19 per cent, reversing a 12 per cent decline in the previous year. --- Michelle Chapman, The Associated Press
