By Nick Robins-Early
Publication Date: 2026-04-15 15:23:00
Snapchat’s parent company plans to lay off 16% of its employees, about 1,000 people, citing “rapid advances in artificial intelligence,” the social media company told employees in an internal memo on Wednesday. The workforce cuts are part of a wave of layoffs in the tech industry over the past year, with many companies blaming AI for the cuts.
Snap Inc’s layoffs follow calls last month from Irenic Capital Management, an activist investor whose portfolio manager wrote a letter to Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel urging him to cut costs and headcount while criticizing the company’s current strategy. In Spiegel’s memo to staff, he claimed that the layoffs would push Snap toward profitability and suggested that artificial intelligence could make up for the lack of human labor.
“While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe rapid advances in artificial intelligence will enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase speed and…
