Freshworks trims 500 jobs for the AI era

AI, meet the org chart guillotine

Freshworks says it’s laying off about 11% of its workforce — roughly 500 jobs — while it reshapes the business around AI and automation. That’s not exactly a “business as usual” memo. It’s more like: the robots are here, and they’re also filing the paperwork.

CEO Dennis Woodside told Reuters that AI is already baked into how the company works internally, saying more than half of Freshworks’ code is now written by AI. Translation: fewer humans are needed for the repetitive stuff, and management is betting that a slimmer operation can move faster.

Why this matters to your portfolio

Freshworks makes customer service and IT support software, so it’s living right in the blast radius of the AI boom. The company said the cuts are meant to reduce management layers and automate routine work — basically, the corporate version of deleting duplicate tabs and calling it a strategy.

The move also puts Freshworks in the same crowded club as other software names trying to prove they can use AI to boost margins without turning into a headcount horror story. The article also pointed to peers like Atlassian, plus broader tech cuts at Meta and Amazon as AI spending forces some ugly trade-offs.

The bigger picture

For investors, the key question is whether AI-driven layoffs are the start of a real efficiency wave or just the latest way companies justify belt-tightening. Either way, Freshworks is signaling it wants to be a leaner, faster AI-native software shop — and it’s willing to chop headcount to get there.

Big picture: AI is no longer just a product feature. It’s becoming a restructuring excuse, a cost-cutting tool, and apparently the new CFO’s best friend.