Bay Area software giant Intuit, best known for owning TurboTax, Mailchimp, and Quickbooks, will lay off 1,800 employees, or 10% of its staff, in the coming weeks.
Currently, the company’s cuts include 599 workers in California as the CEO says more than one thousand workers don’t meet their standards anymore.
What Does Intuit Own?
Intuit is a large company based in Mountain View, California, that specializes in financial software for businesses and individuals.
TurboTax, Quickbooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp are some of their best-producing brands.
Notice of Filing
On Wednesday morning, the company announced the massive move by filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
An email was included to all staff at the company sharing information about the layoff. Employees slated to get the chop will receive calendar incites for “Leaving Intuit Discussion” by 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Who Will Be Cut?
The large reduction in staff will include 384 employees at the Mountain View headquarters and 215 in San Diego.
Employees will be let go from the various brands held at Intuit with the intention of using the saved salary money to “reinvest” in AI protocols and tools.
Notice Has Not Been Filed with Authorities
When a large company undertakes a mass firing or layoff, they are required to file a WARN notice with the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
If a company expects to lay off more than 100 employees at a given time, the WARN notice must be filed within 60 calendar days.
Plan To Reinvest Funds
CEO Sasan Goodarzi sent an email to all employees labeled “Investing in our future,” which outlined the reasoning behind the layoffs and the company’s future moves.
“We do not do layoffs to cut costs, and that remains true in this case,” the Intuit CEO wrote. “The changes we are making today enable us to allocate additional investments to our most critical areas to support our customers and drive growth as detailed below.”
Other Companies Have Made the Same Moves
The executive team stated that the reason for the layoffs is quite simple: to save costs and invest more money in artificial intelligence technology.
The same rationale has been promoted by big companies like Dropbox, Chegg and Google.
Laying Off Employees to Hire More
The CEO went onto explain that new technologies like generative AI-powered financial assistance on their webpage could boost customer acquisition and retention.
However, Goodarzi made a very strange promise to his workforce. After laying off roughly 1,800 employees and setting up the AI tools on their websites, the executive team plans to rehire over 1,800 new workers once the layoff is complete.
Shutting Down Offices
Although the CEO attempted to share their expectations for success in the future with the help of AI tools, the executive team also shared more cuts that will be made in the future.
In total, 10% of the Intuit staff will be laid off. Around 300 roles will be eliminated in Canada, and the Edmonton office will be shut down completely. Boise, Idaho, will also feel the pinch with more than 250 remote-based workers let go.
Severance Available
The CEO also noted in the press release that once all the U.S.-based employees are laid off, they will be asked to leave the company on September 9.
All employees affected by the layoffs will receive around 16 weeks of severance pay and around 6 months of health insurance to ensure a smooth transition.
Intuit Employees Already Searching for Work
Insiders at the company noted that by Wednesday morning, most of the employees who would receive the layoff calendar invite would be aware of their fate.
To speed up the process, several employees were already posting to LinkedIn to announce the news and put out feelers for new positions.
AI Is Meant to Improve Customer Experience
Although many people have bemoaned the use of AI tools like chatbots and assistants and favored speaking to real humans, companies are still planning to release new resources and technologies.
At Intuit, they hope to leverage AI to complete data and match customers to the “right” experts in real-time.
