News

Fiverr Cuts 250 Jobs In Shift To “AI-First Company” Strategy

The gig-economy platform will cut 30% of its staff in the upcoming pivot, citing productivity gains from automation and a flatter structure.

Published

1 year ago

September 17, 2025

Nour Nasir

fiverr cuts 250 jobs in shift to ai-first company strategy

Fiverr is laying off 250 employees — around 30 percent of its workforce — as the gig-economy platform pivots to an AI-first company. CEO Micha Kaufman announced the move in an essay posted to X, describing it as a shift back toward a startup-style operation with fewer management layers.

https://t.co/sK49CxkLsT

— Micha Kaufman (@michakaufman) September 15, 2025

Kaufman said the cuts reflect a new operating model: “An AI-first company that’s leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers,” he wrote. Fiverr has already deployed AI in customer support and fraud detection, reducing its need for headcount to maintain core services.

Hints that Fiverr might use AI to justify layoffs surfaced earlier this year. In a May interview with CBS News, Kaufman advised employees to “automate 100 percent” of their work with AI, while arguing they would still be needed for judgment calls and non-linear thinking. That advice has not shielded Fiverr’s own staff from redundancy.

Also Read: Spotify Premium Users Can Stream Lossless Music At Last

Fiverr’s announcement follows a wider pattern across the tech sector in 2025, with companies citing AI to rationalize job cuts. Duolingo declared its intention to become “AI-first” back in April, and Workday announced plans in February to cut 1,750 positions — far more than Fiverr but driven by the same pivot toward automation.

For affected employees, the outcome is familiar: fewer people left to shoulder more work. For Fiverr, the gamble is betting that automation will keep it competitive in a crowded gig-work market where platforms are racing to integrate artificial intelligence.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence Fiverr

Up Next

Meta Launches Ray-Ban Smart Glasses With Display & Neural Band

Don't Miss

KSA To Roll Out Google Pay And Alipay+ As Digital Payments Surge

Click to comment

News

Trip.com Is Betting An AI Agent Will Book Your Next Vacation

Abu Dhabi, Jazeera Airways and a run of hotel deals give the company more inventory. Its Mastercard demo says the most about where booking technology is headed.

Published

2 days ago

September 16, 2026

Nour Nasir

trip.com is betting an ai agent will book your next vacation

Most of what Trip.com Group announced at Arabian Travel Market 2026 this week reads like the standard expansion playbook of an online travel agency: a new agreement with a tourism board, a run of hotel partnerships, an airline deal. However, one item was considerably more interesting: a demonstration built with Mastercard of an AI agent that doesn’t just suggest trips but also pays for them.

trip.com tripgenie ai agent

The showcase put TripGenie, the company’s AI travel assistant, to work searching, selecting and completing purchases inside a single booking flow, with Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants handling the payment step and Network International processing the transactions on the merchant side. It’s limited for now to attractions and ancillary services, but the partners plan a phased commercial rollout from early 2027.

“As traveller expectations change, technology and AI will play an increasingly important role in how people plan their journeys,” says Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com.

Meanwhile, in more conventional news, CEO Lou and Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry (Director General for Tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi), signed an agreement building on the two organizations’ existing partnership, with joint marketing and Abu Dhabi destination content to be pushed across Trip.com Group’s platforms.

Also Read: Musk’s Boring Company Wants To Dig 150 KM Of Tunnel Under The UAE

On accommodation, the group expanded its partnerships with JA Hotels & Resorts, Ishraq Hospitality and Aleph Hospitality and deepened its work with Silkhaus, which brings vacation homes into a portfolio that has so far leaned on hotels. Jazeera Airways signed a strategic partnership intended to widen the Kuwaiti carrier’s reach and encourage earlier bookings, tied to Kuwait’s own tourism ambitions.

The company moved into a larger Dubai office earlier this year and describes its long-term aim as a two-way ecosystem: sending Middle East travelers abroad while drawing international visitors in.