- After the US, Israel records highest layoffs, followed by India and Singapore.
In a year that was supposed to mark the industry’s return to stability, global technology companies have instead shed 1,63,427 jobs since January 2026 — and artificial intelligence has been cited as a factor in well over half of those cuts.
A new report from TradingPlatforms puts the figure at 91,215 AI-attributed layoffs, a number that captures both the scale of automation-driven restructuring and the increasingly common corporate reflex of invoking AI as the rationale for thinning payrolls.
The data paints a picture not of a single sector in distress but of a recalibration unfolding across nearly every corner of the technology economy.
The pain has been distributed unevenly. Cloud and SaaS companies have borne the heaviest losses, with 37,492 layoffs — roughly 23 per cent of the global total. E-commerce and marketplaces follow at 22,633, IT services at 16,756, and social media platforms at 13,592. Enterprise software, with 13,308 job cuts, ranks fifth, accounting for approximately 8.14 per cent of all tech layoffs recorded this year.
The concentration is stark. Nearly 88.6 per cent of all enterprise software layoffs — 11,792 out of 13,308 positions eliminated — have occurred at companies headquartered in the United States.
Among US-based enterprise firms, Cisco leads with 4,000 roles cut, followed by Amdocs at 2,900 and Autodesk at 1,000. Cisco has been explicit about the calculus: the company stated that roughly $1 billion in restructuring costs would be redirected toward its AI strategy, a framing that has become emblematic of the broader moment.
Geography of cuts
Outside the United States, the geography of layoffs maps onto the same innovation hubs that have powered global technology growth for the past two decades. In Asia and the Middle East, workforce reductions span AI startups, e-commerce platforms, and cybersecurity firms, with Israel recording the highest number, followed by India and Singapore.
Israel ranks a distant second after the US, with 660 enterprise software layoffs concentrated across just two companies. The more consequential of these came on July 22, when workplace software maker Monday.com announced plans to cut roughly 20 per cent of its global workforce — approximately 620 employees — as it restructured around what it described as its AI Work Platform. The language was deliberate: not a retreat, but a pivot.
Oracle: The year’s most aggressive reducer
No company has reduced its workforce more aggressively in 2026 than Oracle. The database and cloud giant has eliminated 25,254 roles across multiple rounds since January. While Oracle had already begun trimming headcount toward the end of 2025, the scale escalated sharply in March, when thousands of employees across the United States, India, Canada, and Mexico were dismissed in a sudden, sweeping wave of cuts.
The Oracle case is instructive partly because of its sheer magnitude — over 25,000 jobs in a single year — and partly because it complicates any tidy narrative that AI alone explains the bloodletting. Oracle’s restructuring reflects competitive pressures in the cloud market, post-acquisition integration, and a strategic refocus as much as it does automation.
In Canada, information management software company OpenText announced in July 2026 that it had cut roughly 2 per cent of its global workforce, or about 400 employees, describing the move as part of “ongoing organisational planning.” The company, headquartered in the Kitchener-Waterloo corridor, said the impact on its Canadian workforce was minimal.
Perhaps the most revealing dimension of the 2026 layoff cycle is not the cuts themselves but how financial markets have responded to them. When Cisco announced its restructuring, shares jumped 17 per cent in after-hours trading.
Monday.com’s stock rose 2.3 per cent following its 20 per cent workforce reduction announcement. ServiceNow, whose cuts coincided with its AI portfolio crossing $1 billion in annual contract value, saw its shares climb roughly 9 per cent over the following week.
The pattern is difficult to ignore: companies that frame layoffs as an AI-driven restructuring are being rewarded with higher valuations. The market appears to have internalised a logic in which fewer employees, presented as a strategic realignment toward artificial intelligence, signals a leaner and more focused business.
Stanislava Savisheva, an analyst at TradingPlatforms, captured the dynamic in stark terms. “The message from markets is increasingly clear: massive waves of layoffs are now seen as a sign of discipline, as long as the story is some kind of pivot toward AI,” Savisheva said. “Fewer employees, framed the right way, now reads as a stronger business, with its priorities straight.”