The recently announced WiseTech Global layoffs are set to affect 2,000 jobs, and unsurprisingly, AI investments remain the central reason for the cuts once more. The prominent Australian software company revealed plans to lay off nearly a third of its global workforce over the next 18 months during an earnings call this week, reassuring investors that it was on the brink of substantial productivity gains with this shift in operations.
WiseTech’s AI restructuring plans are unsurprising in an era that has been defined by automation goals as the ultimate solution to operational limitations, even as the company’s own services risk redundancy with the proliferation of this technology. With the reprioritization of resources and goals seen here, future job cuts at WiseTech also remain a distinct possibility.
WiseTech Global is exploring layoffs as a part of its two-year restructuring plan to pursue AI-driven efficiency gains. (Image: Pexels)
WiseTech Global Layoffs to Come for 2,000 Jobs as the Era of AI Continues to Claim Its Victims
Artificial intelligence is reshaping workforces and business operations as we speak, even if pointed gains from the technology have been slow to reveal themselves. In the latest update to this trend, WiseTech has announced workforce cuts that will affect almost 30% of its global workforce, which is believed to add up to 7,000 workers spread across 40 countries. The WiseTech job losses are part of its AI-motivated restructuring plans set to unfold over the next two years.
Some teams could be halved entirely by the layoffs at WiseTech, particularly in product and development, and customer service roles across the organisation. The organization’s U.S. cloud computing arm E2open, which was only recently acquired, could see up to 50% of the cuts, according to Reuters. However, the company reassured workers that some degree of human involvement will continue to be essential in the business.
Employees directly in contact with customers or those in sales will still be responsible for driving such people-facing roles forward. This preference for human interfaces and connections is something we have seen across industries, where, despite the ease and convenience of AI, customers continue to prefer to rely on a human salesperson or customer support representative. This doesn’t protect customer-facing roles entirely, but does give many businesses pause.
The WiseTech Global Job Cuts Are Driven by Productivity Pursuits
WiseTech, a prominent provider of shipping and logistics management software, explained that the technology is revolutionizing what can be achieved and the timelines within which it can be managed. According to Chief Executive Officer Zubin Appoo, a task that once took six to seven months can now be turned into a project that can be completed in a day. Reuters also reports that a task like rolling out global customs capability in a new country, a job that once took over two years to map out, was now achievable six to seven times faster.
“Individually, people can do far, far more work with AI than they could have done nine months ago,” WiseTech Executive Chairman Richard White was heard saying earlier this week. By this, he was referring to the software coding done at the organization, which could now be handled by AI, requiring a single developer to oversee it rather than a whole team.
“Software development has experienced its most significant shift in decades. I am prepared to say this clearly: the era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over,” Appoo announced. “For our product and development teams, these reductions will focus on roles where we have seen AI dramatically improve throughput.”
WiseTech AI-Motivated Restructuring Shines a Light on the Continued Dominance of the Technology
WiseTech Global’s layoffs are undoubtedly a sign of the times, where technology trumps investments in human capital. Announcing a reliance on the tech and a promise of AI-boosted gains has allowed many businesses to regain investor confidence and increase their share value. At the same time, despite these promised productivity gains, organizations are also being accused of “AI-washing” and using the technology as a cover for stalling results or as a guise for the offshoring of business processes to reduce internal expenses.
Terms like “leaner operations” and “increased efficiency” are being touted as the outcome of such AI job losses, and WiseTech has now joined the ranks of businesses making similar claims; however, there is considerable speculation online and offline regarding these achievements. It also gives rise to a considerable number of questions about sustainable operations.
Pause to Consider What the Depletion of Internal Talent Could Mean for Long-Term Operations
When AI writes the majority of the company code and only a handful of developers are around to oversee it, what happens when the code breaks down or results in unexpected failures? The decline in organizations maintaining an internal reserve of expertise could have severe consequences for a business in the long run.
For now, businesses appear to be relegating such considerations to the future, for if and when such problems occur, but these are considerations that employers need to take into account when downsizing their workforce in favor of AI. While organizations like WiseTech see workers laid off to promote internal AI use, the decision may win investor support, but the general sentiment among the public and the workforce is worth exploring as well.
Have insider insights to share regarding the WiseTech Global layoffs? Write to us or share them in the comments. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.
