AI Tech Layoffs Hit 100K in 2026 as Coinbase and Freshworks Cut Deep

by Zaira Varghese 09. June 2026 Tech News 0

The phrase that once felt like a distant prediction is now a line item in quarterly announcements: companies are cutting staff and pointing directly at artificial intelligence. In the span of a few weeks, both Coinbase and Freshworks confirmed double-digit workforce reductions, pushing the running total of AI tech layoffs across the industry toward 100,000 for 2026 alone.

The Latest AI Tech Layoffs: Coinbase and Freshworks

Coinbase is reducing its workforce by roughly 14% — about 700 roles — as part of a push to become what CEO Brian Armstrong called “lean, fast, and AI-native.” Rather than framing it purely as cost-cutting, Armstrong described a structural reorganization, including replacing layers of management with “player-coaches” and flattening the org chart.

Freshworks, meanwhile, announced it would trim about 11% of its staff, or roughly 500 jobs. As TechRadar reported, CEO Dennis Woodside tied the decision squarely to automation, noting that more than half of the company’s code is now written by AI tools.

A Year of Six-Figure Reductions

These AI tech layoffs are not outliers. According to layoff trackers, tech job cuts in 2026 have already climbed into the 90,000–113,000 range depending on the source, with March marking the worst single month for the sector since 2024. What makes this wave different from prior downturns is the explanation attached to it.

Direct automation: Customer support and content moderation roles are being replaced by AI chatbots and classifiers at multiple firms.
Engineering leverage: When executives say AI writes “over half” of their code, headcount math changes for whole teams.
Reorganization, not just reduction: Companies are using AI as the reason to redesign how teams are structured, not simply to shrink them.

Why Executives Are Naming AI Out Loud

For years, layoffs were blamed on macro headwinds, over-hiring during the pandemic, or “realigning priorities.” The 2026 cohort is notable because leaders are explicitly naming AI as the cause. That candor is partly a message to investors, who have rewarded companies that frame themselves as AI-native, and partly an acknowledgment that the productivity gains are real enough to change staffing models.

It also raises uncomfortable questions. If AI can handle a meaningful share of support tickets, code, and routine knowledge work today, the categories of jobs considered “safe” are narrowing faster than most workforce plans assumed.

The Counterargument

Not everyone reads these AI tech layoffs as pure substitution. Skeptics point out that many of the companies announcing AI-driven cuts over-hired aggressively in 2021 and 2022, and that “AI” is a convenient, market-friendly narrative for corrections that would have happened anyway. There is also a long history of automation creating new roles even as it eliminates others — though those new roles rarely land with the same people who lost the old ones.

What to Watch Next

The signal to watch is whether AI tech layoffs spread from support and engineering into other white-collar functions like marketing, finance, and operations. If the 100K figure for 2026 keeps climbing through the back half of the year, the debate will shift from whether AI is displacing workers to how quickly.

The Bottom Line

Coinbase and Freshworks didn’t invent the trend, but their willingness to name AI as the driver makes them a clear marker of where the industry is heading. The technology that fueled a historic hiring boom is now being cited as a reason to hire fewer people — and 2026 is shaping up to be the year AI tech layoffs became impossible to ignore.