Tech hiring is shifting towards AI
AI is eating budgets and headcount while companies shift what they're looking for
The tech job market is in a pretty bad state, with waves of layoffs and hiring freezes that show no sign of getting better.
2021-2022 saw an insanely good (for candidates) job market.
Then, there was an incredible amount downsizings around 2022–2024. 2025 saw nearly 245,000 tech jobs cut worldwide, the most severe contraction in years, and early 2026 has seemingly brought more of the same.
This newsletter is for tech workers who want to multiply their impact using bleeding-edge AI tools. If you want to accelerate your career, you’re in the right place.
Amazon confirmed 16,000 additional corporate job cuts in late January, bringing its total to 30,000 roles eliminated since October (roughly 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce). This marks the largest headcount reduction in Amazon’s history, surpassing the 27,000 jobs cut during the 2022–23 pullback. Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy cited the need to “reduce layers and remove bureaucracy,” after the company over-expanded during the pandemic.
Intel is undertaking a massive restructuring that will eliminate about 24,000 positions (around 20% of its workforce). New leadership initiated these cuts as part of a multi-year effort to regain competitiveness in semiconductors and redirect resources toward advanced chip designs and AI-centric initiatives. Intel is urgently pivoting after losing ground to TSMC and NVIDIA in the race for AI hardware.
UPS announced a historic reduction of 48,000 jobs, driven largely by “automation and efficiency improvements” in its delivery network. UPS is aggressively deploying robots and AI across warehouses and hubs. Even logistics and transportation companies are shedding workers as they digitize and respond to declining shipping volumes with automated systems.
Many executives explicitly cite artificial intelligence and automation as drivers of these job cuts. Sometimes they’re saying this to cover for declining growth, but sometimes it’s honesty. Amazon’s HR head Beth Galetti acknowledged that AI-powered tools are helping eliminate bureaucracy and enabling higher productivity with fewer people. Andy Jassy even stated that the rise of AI means certain tasks can be automated, “leading to corporate job losses” as a direct consequence.
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These recent cuts aren’t all “we’re replacing humans with AI”, but they’re big effects in an already competitive market.
If you’re a software engineer or work in adjacent roles, you’re probably wondering how you can add some job security.
Make embracing AI a priority
For software engineers, these trends carry a clear message. In a volatile market where traditional job security is eroding, the best defense is to become highly proficient in AI tools and workflows.
It’s one of the reasons I got interested in working with AI. And it’s the reason I started this newsletter.
The roles being spared (or newly created) in many companies are those that build, manage, or heavily utilize AI. Conversely, the roles most at risk are those that can be replaced or greatly augmented by AI.
Practically speaking, mastering AI-powered tools is now a must.
Some companies, like Shopify, Meta, and Zillow, are explicitly measuring for this in performance reviews and hiring.
The good news is, a new generation of developer-focused AI products has emerged, and early adopters rave about the results. AI pair-programming assistants, intelligent code editors, and AI research aides are proving to be game-changers for those who integrate them into daily work.
Longtime readers of the newsletter know that tools like Claude Code and Cursor are changing the way we work altogether.
These tools are quickly becoming essential parts of the programmer’s toolkit. The engineers who are “winning” in this climate have made AI a force multiplier. Notably, they’re not using it to replace their own thinking.
If you outsource your work as an employee to AI and use it as an excuse to work less, you’re going to get outpaced by peers who use it to produce more.
Those who leverage AI are far more productive and adaptable, making themselves indispensable even as others are automated away.
To be concrete, now is the time to learn and embrace high-leverage AI tools in your engineering workflow.
My guess is that at some point, AI usage will become normal in most development shops. For a brief window in time, you can have an edge.
Those who make this transition will find no shortage of opportunities; even amid the cutbacks, companies are hungry for talent that can drive their AI ambitions forward.
It’s a challenging time, no doubt. Yet times of rapid change always are. The writing is on the wall in every layoff memo and earnings call. AI proficiency is now critical. The tech job market may not be getting better in the traditional sense, but for those willing to ride the AI wave, new doors are opening. The tools are here, the paradigm shift is happening.
The question is, are you ready to embrace it?
The shift I'm seeing from the inside: headcount isn't just shrinking, it's being *restructured*. Teams that used to need 5 people now need 2. but those 2 need to be comfortable reviewing AI output, not just writing code. The irony is that the best AI-augmented engineers are the ones with the deepest fundamentals, not the best prompt engineers. AI makes experience more valuable, not less.