Company Responsible For Global IT Outage Last Year To Cut Jobs For AI Use

CrowdStrike, the infamous cybersecurity company responsible for the massive global IT outage last year, has announced that it will slash five per cent of its workforce due to "AI efficiency". CrowdStrike had 10,118 full-time employees as of January 31, but after the axe, around 500 employees would be let go, according to a report in The Guardian.

Based in Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike's chief executive, George Kurtz, said the cuts would be made globally, with AI taking some of the jobs. Other reasons for the cuts included market demand for sustained growth and expanding the product offering.

"We're operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs," said Mr Kurtz, adding that AI "flattens the hiring curve" and "helps us innovate from idea to product faster".

"AI is a force multiplier throughout the business," he said.

CrowdStrike became a publicly traded company in 2019 and had a revenue of $1 billion in March for the fourth financial quarter of 2025, with a loss of $92 million. As per the regulatory filing, the company will incur about $36 million to $53 million in charges related to the layoffs.

What did Crowdstrike do?

In July last year, CrowdStrike pushed a faulty update to its software intended to detect cybersecurity threats that brought down 8.5 million Windows systems worldwide.

Global banks, airlines, hospitals, TV networks and government offices were disrupted due to the outage, which lasted a long time.

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AI taking jobs

CrowdStrike is not the only company to use AI to phase out its human workers. Last month, language-learning platform Duolingo announced it would "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle".

The company justified its switch in approach, stating that it had taken a similar call in 2012 by betting big on mobile.

"I've said this in Q&As and many meetings, but I want to make it official: Duolingo is going to be Al-first. Al is already changing how work gets done. It's not a question of if or when. It's happening now," said Mr Von Ahn in the all-hands memo, posted on Duolingo's LinkedIn page.

Apart from not using contractors anymore, Duolingo will use AI to evaluate performance reviews. Additionally, headcounts will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.