The gigantic push towards Artificial Intelligence to turbocharge computer functions and other tasks will greatly benefit society. However, much like the way the automobile replaced the horse drawn carriage, or, more recently, how broadband wifi telecommunications has replaced phone booths and landline phones, A.I. is already replacing many tech jobs.
Former Twitter founder and current CEO of Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ | XYZ Price Prediction) Jack Dorsey announced last month that he was laying off 40% of his workforce – roughly 4,000 people – thanks to the greater efficiencies afforded by A.I. tools. The announcement triggered a 17% spike in Block’s price. Investors clearly see greater profits and lower overhead in these measures.
In a shareholder letter, Dorsey wrote: “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively,”
Dorsey didn’t need a crystal ball to see the handwriting on the wall. Other tech companies, such as Palantir Technologies(NASDAQ: PLTR), Atlassian Corp. (NASDAQ: TEAM), Docusign (NASDAQ: DOCU), and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) are already geared to follow suit, and they may very likely see similar price spikes with their layoff announcements – but maybe not.
Palantir
Alex Karp has already cut over half of Palantir’s IT staff and further layoffs may be in the near future to get earnings to justify its lofty valuations.
As recently as January, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said AI “will destroy” jobs in the humanities while simultaneously boosting vocational career paths that are typically categorized as blue-collar, such as electricians or plumbers. Although Palantir has a hiring freeze in effect and has been gradually trimming jobs (reduced IT department by over 50%), Palantir stock has been drifting downwards over the past four months, and many analysts believe its sky-high 243 P/E ratio makes it unjustifiably overpriced. Analysts are split over Palantir’s 12-month price projection at the moment. As Palantir’s A.I. gets more sophisticated, Karp may try to tip the analyst scales in Palantir’s favor and very well be sending more people to vocational school in the not too distant future.
Atlassian
Atlassian’s catalog of productivity and development software has its fans, but A.I. threatens to make deeper workforce cuts.
Australian-American software company Atlassian has seen its stock drop 66% in the past year. At the time of this writing, Atlassian had announced just days ago that it was laying off 10% of its staff, approximately 1.600 workers, in order to spend additional funds on A.I. and enterprise sales. Inc. published an article that questioned the validity and premise of the A.I. endgame for tech companies. The author criticized the mass A.I. rationale firings as a hive mentality kneejerk reaction being done “just because everyone else is doing it.” TEAM stock did not see much of an anticipated spike and continues to trade in a 6-point range.
Docusign
Docusign executive management during more prosperous times.
Over the past 12 months, Docusign has dropped 42%. The signature and document verification software company is one of the companies that the SaaSpocalypse has in its crosshairs. This is due to its business model being something A.I. can likely replicate easily. The company has already been steadily issuing pink slips since 2024, when it shed 440 sales and marketing jobs. Docusign earns approximately $450,000 per employee, so further layoffs would help to shore up the company’s bottom line in 2026. Whether investors will react favorably or not to such a move remains to be seen.
Anthropic
Perhaps smarting from losing their US government contracts over their dispute with Secretary of War Hegseth and President Trump over security issues related to A.I., Anthropic, best known for its Claude A.I., is also a company that anticipates A.I. generating thousands of pink slips in the near future. Although Anthropic has not made any company specific layoff announcements yet, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei has warned that unemployment could swell to 20%, with white-collar jobs in tech, finance and law hit especially hard. Additionally, he believes that figure can rise to as high as 50% within the next five years.
While Anthropic stock is not publicly traded, EquityZen and Hiive trade its stock in the private markets, and large institutions like Blackstone, Amazon, and Salesforce are all significant shareholders. Given its pre-IPO $380 billion valuation, any announcement pertaining to improving margins, i.e. reduced payroll, will inevitably be viewed positively in the market.
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