Yet another ultra-rich tech CEO has announced sweeping layoffs by email, and once again artificial intelligence is the scapegoat. Wix.com, the website-building platform used by millions of small businesses, is cutting roughly 20 percent of its global workforce as executives race to restructure around AI-powered tools and leaner operations.
In a lengthy memo sent to employees and later posted publicly on X, Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami said the company needed to become a 'faster, leaner, and flatter organization' as artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the tech industry. The layoffs will affect around 1,000 workers of Wix's roughly 5,300 staff worldwide.
'Companies that embrace this change will not only build faster; they will build things the previous generation literally could not have imagined,' Abrahami wrote in the message. The Israel-based company, which helps entrepreneurs build online stores and business tools without coding knowledge, said the cuts were driven by both AI advancements and financial pressure caused by the strengthening Israeli shekel against the US dollar.
'As the majority of our teams are Israel-based, a very meaningful portion of our costs are shekel-denominated, while our revenue is largely dollar-denominated,' Abrahami wrote. But much of the attention surrounding the layoffs has focused on the company's embrace of AI and the increasingly familiar language executives are using to justify job cuts. Abrahami said Wix has already created new 'AI-native' roles inside the company, including positions called 'Xengineer' and 'Creators,' designed around employees who use AI throughout the development process.
He argued the rise of artificial intelligence means companies now need fewer management layers and fewer workers overall. 'It also means a smaller number of people,' he wrote. Wix is far from alone. A growing number of major tech companies have recently cited AI while announcing layoffs, restructuring plans or hiring freezes as executives look to reassure investors they are adapting to the rapidly changing landscape.
Earlier this year, Snap laid off employees while saying it needed to improve efficiency and focus resources on AI-powered products. Block, the fintech company led by Jack Dorsey, cut jobs as it reorganized around AI. Software giant Atlassian similarly warned that AI was reshaping how work gets done as it reduced staffing levels and flattened management structures. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke sparked backlash earlier this year after reportedly telling managers that employees should first prove AI could not do a job before asking to hire additional workers.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has repeatedly touted the company's use of AI customer-service tools after earlier suggesting the buy-now-pay-later giant could dramatically reduce headcount over time because of automation. Even Duolingo recently faced criticism after executives openly discussed replacing portions of contract work with generative AI systems. The latest wave of cuts has intensified fears across Silicon Valley that companies are using AI both as a genuine productivity tool and as cover for broader cost-cutting efforts after years of aggressive hiring during the pandemic-era tech boom.
Wix itself has been under pressure as new AI-powered website generators and so-called 'vibe coding' platforms threaten traditional software companies. Shares of the Nasdaq-listed company have fallen sharply this year as investors question how legacy software firms will compete in an AI-first market. Still, Abrahami insisted the painful cuts were necessary for Wix to survive what he described as the biggest technological shift since the invention of modern programming languages. 'We are choosing to compete,' he wrote.
