Monday.com cites AI-driven growth as it restructures 20% of its workforce

Monday.com, the Tel Aviv-based work management platform, disclosed in an SEC filing that it will lay off about 20% of its global workforce (just over 600 employees) as part of a restructuring tied to its AI-driven growth strategy. Co-founder Eran Zinman told employees in a LinkedIn memo that the move was not about replacing people with AI but about adapting the organization to an AI-first vision the company laid out roughly a year ago. Monday.com expects $45 million to $55 million in net restructuring charges but still projects up to 20% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026.

This is not an isolated event. According to Financial Times analysis cited in the coverage, U.S. tech companies have slashed nearly 140,000 jobs since the start of 2026, with Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft alone accounting for almost 50,000 of those cuts as they funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into AI data center buildouts. Companies citing AI as a factor in job cuts have underperformed the Nasdaq by almost 10% in the 30 trading days following their announcements, suggesting the market doesn't entirely buy the narratives.

Why AI builders should care

For AI builders and product teams, Monday.com's restructuring is a signal that AI-first strategies are reshaping organizational structures, not just product roadmaps. The company is moving from a platform for managing work to one designed to allow employees and AI agents to perform work together. This shift has direct implications for how you build and sell AI products into enterprise workflows.

When a major SaaS platform like Monday.com restructures around AI, it validates the thesis that AI agents will become first-class participants in work management. If you are building AI tools for project management, task automation, or collaborative workflows, this trend means your target market is actively reorganizing to adopt AI. The layoffs also mean there is a growing pool of experienced tech talent that understands these platforms and may be available to join AI-native startups.

Practical implications

The pattern across companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Meta, and Salesforce is not uniform. Some firms are cutting headcount while simultaneously hiring for AI roles. Meta moved roughly 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles even as it laid off 8,000 others. IBM is tripling entry-level hiring for AI and hybrid-cloud roles alongside cuts. This suggests that AI-driven layoffs are often about rebalancing skills rather than pure reduction.

For builders, this means the enterprise market is in flux. The companies that are your potential customers are reorganizing their teams and budgets. If you are selling AI agents or automation tools, the timing is right: these companies are actively looking to replace manual processes with AI. But you also need to be aware that your buyers may be under pressure to show ROI quickly, as the market is skeptical of AI narratives that don't translate to financial performance.

Caveats

Monday.com's co-founder explicitly stated the layoffs were not about replacing people with AI, but the company's SEC filing ties the restructuring directly to its AI-driven growth strategy. The distinction matters: the company is not claiming AI directly replaced 600 roles, but that the organizational model needed to change to pursue an AI-first product vision. This is a common framing across the industry, and builders should be cautious about taking vendor claims at face value.

The Financial Times analysis showing that companies citing AI for layoffs underperform the Nasdaq suggests that investors are not fully buying the AI narrative as a justification for job cuts. This could mean that some of these restructurings are more about cost-cutting than genuine AI transformation. For builders, this means the market may be skeptical of AI products that are positioned as workforce replacements rather than productivity enhancers.

Finally, the data on AI-related layoffs is still emerging. The TechCrunch piece provides a running list but notes that some cuts are ongoing and not all companies disclose the full extent. The picture is complex: some AI-focused firms like Anthropic and OpenAI are hiring rapidly, absorbing talent shed elsewhere. The net effect on the tech labor market is still unclear.