Fiverr's CEO has chosen to make the platform "AI-first" and has laid off 250 people.
We dissect the language and actions of one of the latest CEOs to take an “AI-first” approach to business and what that could mean for mass unemployment, economic stability and individual earning power
OPINION
Fiverr’s 2024 Impact and Sustainability report proclaimed the company’s mission was to “transform the way the world creates and works together… we’re shaping the future of work.” However, just weeks later, that future arrived with a harsh reality check: 250 employees were deemed unsustainable and laid off as part of the company’s new direction to become “AI-first.”
Democratic disconnect?
The disconnect between Fiverr’s impact mission and in-house actions reveals a troubling pattern emerging across the tech industry.
Surely, the irony of the report’s message was not lost on those made redundant. Fiverr is an Israel-based platform built on connecting freelancers from around the world with work opportunities. Yet has chosen to simultaneously eliminate hundreds of jobs in the name of technological “progress.”
Missing the mark on messaging
CEO Micha Kaufman’s internal letter to employees and investors showed how sometimes corporate communications can miss the mark. Opening the letter with a casual “Hey team,” he chose to use collective language that inadvertently included those being terminated in his vision for transformation:
Today, we are launching such a transformation for Fiverr, to turn Fiverr into an AI-first company that’s leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers.
This transformation requires a painful reset, and as we make it, we will be parting ways with approximately 250 team members across the different departments, resulting in a smaller and flatter organization. This is possibly one of the toughest decisions that I have had to make, especially as Fiverr is such a magical place with a strong sense of belonging and mission-driven culture.
… To those who will be leaving us: thank you! We do not take your contribution for granted, and we plan to do everything we can to provide you with comprehensive support – generous severance, extended healthcare, career transition assistance, and personal help from our leadership team.
For those left with jobs, Kaufman said in his letter, “The opportunity to run a leaner organization also allows us to work more closely as a team. Personally, I expect to work more directly with each one of you, with fewer reporting layers and more time to sit down together, and build.”
Is AI really to blame?
This transformation didn’t emerge from nowhere. Back in May, Kaufman had warned employees in a company-wide email: “AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it’s coming for my job too. This is a wake-up call.”
But a wake-up call to what, exactly? The CEO’s job appears secure, while 250 others face the immediate reality of missed mortgage payments, derailed careers, and financial uncertainty. The warning served not as preparation for adaptation but as a prelude to unemployment by artificial intelligence.
AI isn’t “coming for” anyone’s job. Artificial intelligence doesn’t make strategic decisions or choose to replace human workers. CEOs do. This language of technological inevitability arguably obscures human freewill and corporate responsibility. CEOs should reconsider justifying automation as some natural force rather than a series of deliberate business choices.
Economic blinders
Fiverr’s approach reflects a growing trend among companies rushing to embrace “AI-first” or “agentic enterprise” strategies. Each transformation promises efficiency and innovation while systematically reducing human employment. This creates an economic contradiction some corporate leadership teams seem determined to ignore (for now).
When companies operate with fewer humans, they generate less individual income within the economy. Those displaced workers represent not just labour costs saved but also purchasing power lost. The global economy needs people who can afford to spend on anything from food to pension contributions. The cumulative effect of widespread AI adoption and layoffs threatens the customer bases and supply chains these companies depend on.
- Goldman Sachs Research estimates that unemployment will increase by half a percentage point during the AI transition period as displaced workers seek new positions.
- If current AI use cases were expanded across the economy and reduced employment proportionally to efficiency gains, an estimated 2.5% of US employment would be at risk of related job loss.
- Occupations with higher risk of being displaced by AI include computer programmers, accountants and auditors, legal and administrative assistants, and customer service representatives.
Are the days of conscious capitalism over?
Pension funds and institutional investors who claim commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles face a moment of truth. If maximising shareholder value consistently means minimising human employment, how sustainable is this model? What good are strong quarterly returns (while they last) if they systematically undermine the economy’s long-term growth with unemployment?
Where are the new jobs?
Many industries once promised that each wave of innovation would create more jobs than it destroyed. Today’s AI boom tells a different story. One where efficiency gains accrue to shareholders while economic displacement spreads to workers.
This new business-as-usual isn’t working. There has to be a better way.
