‘Right Decision, Not Easy’: Atlassian Cuts 1,600 Jobs Ahead of AI Push
Following Atlassian, Oracle announced setting aside $2.1 billion for restructuring, possibly resulting in additional layoffs worldwide.
News
- UAE Plans to Run 50% of Government on Agentic AI Within Two Years
- SpaceX Warns Probes Into xAI Could Limit Market Access
- Khazna’s DXB8 Becomes World’s First Zero-Waste-Certified Data Center
- ServiceNow Flags Geopolitical Drag Despite Narrow Q1 Beat
- DIFC Eyes 25,000 Jobs, $3.5bn Boost as World’s First AI-Native Finance Hub
- Amazon Deepens Anthropic Ties With Up to $25 Billion Investment
Image Credit- Diksha Mishra/ MIT Sloan Management Review Middle East
Joining the wave of restructuring efforts centred on artificial intelligence, software giant Atlassian announced plans to lay off approximately 10% of its staff, amounting to about 1,600 positions.
The decision has been made in order to pursue further investment in AI. In a note circulated on Wednesday, co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes told employees that the move was “the right decision for Atlassian. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy,” he said. “Far from it. I know this has a huge impact on each of you, and it weighs heavily on Atlassian and me today.”
Notably, Atlassian has lost over half its market share since the beginning of 2026, in fear that AI will make its services obsolete. The share price plunge has eroded over half the net worth of the company’s Australian founders, Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.
Cannon-Brookes noted that AI has transformed the skills and roles required by the company, enabling a restructure to bolster its financial position and “self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales.”
“Our approach is not ‘AI replaces people’. But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas.”
Atlassian has grown its revenue through its workflow apps, such as Jira, Confluence and Trello, recording US$1.6 billion revenue in the last three months of 2025, up US$300 million from the same period a year prior. It is yet to be profitable, having recorded millions in losses every year since 2017, including a net loss of US$42 million in the last three months of 2025, up from US$38 million the prior year.
