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The social media company jumps on the bandwagon.
Snap, the parent company of social media app Snapchat, is laying off 1,000 employees amid the growing ability of AI tools.
In an internal memo sent to employees on Wednesday, Snap said it is cutting 16% of its full-time workforce and closing more than 300 open roles, with the changes expected to reduce yearly costs by $500 million.
“Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value,” said Snap chief executive and co-founder Evan Spiegel.
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AI reduces repetitive work, increases velocity
Spiegel said that workers who remain at the company will use AI tools to “reduce repetitive work and increase velocity,” as “small squads” of employees have been doing in recent months.
The memo, included in a government filing, revealed that Snap employees are using AI tools to “drive meaningful progress” across key initiatives – including Snapchat Plus, the subscription service that gives users early access to new features and app customization options.
The changes are “necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential,” Spiegel said, adding that “rapid advancements” in AI enable teams to “better support our community, partners, and advertisers.”
The move comes weeks after Irenic Capital Management pushed the Snapchat parent to optimize its portfolio and improve performance. The activist investor has an economic interest of roughly 2.5% in the company.
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More AI washing?
Snap is the latest tech firm to streamline its workforce as it ramps up AI adoption to improve efficiency,with companies including Meta, Block, Amazon, and Oracle all recently cutting jobs.
However, tech insiders claim these announcements often bear the hallmarks of “AI washing.” This is where companies falsely attribute job cuts to “AI implementation” or “increased efficiency from AI” to mask other issues such as financial stress, over-hiring, or restructuring.
“Whether AI is a miracle technology with the capability to
handle the workload of entire teams, or just a convenient reason for
companies to put the blame on while they restructure past poor business decisions, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, and Snap provides the perfect example”, said Alan Cohen, a data analyst at RationalFX .
He noted Snap’s claim that AI is boosting efficiency, with over 65% of new code reportedly AI-generated and some gains in ads and infrastructure. However, investors, led by Irenic Capital, are pushing for $500m in savings and had already called for a 21% workforce cut.
“When the financial imperative precedes the capability, the AI narrative starts to look more like cover than cause,” Cohen said.
Forrester recently highlighted the trend of AI washing in its AI job impact forecast for 2025-2030. “What we found is that most of the jobs that are influenced by AI would be augmented rather than displaced,” Michael O’Grady, a forecast analyst for Forrester and co-author of the firm’s latest AI job impact report, explained.
New York • September 15-16, 2026
Speakers Camille Fournier, Gergely Orosz and Will Larson confirmed 🙌
