Salesforce Layoffs: What Patterns Are We Seeing In Big Layoffs Tied To Automation?

Salesforce has is the latest big company of many who are cutting jobs in 2025. The company let go of 4,000 workers, saying it needed “less heads” because of AI. The decision places Salesforce in the same camp as Oracle, Dropbox, CNN and Block, which have all tied staff reductions to tech changes.

This comes with a trend we have been watching happen more and more since 2023 or so. And don’t be fool, it’s not just tech, its in media, finance and even retail and manufacturing where big staff cuts have taken place. In Salesforce’s case, executives were blunt… tasks previously done by humans could now be handled faster and more cheaply by AI systems.

Salesforce has been investing heavily in generative AI for its customer tools and executives have spoken openly about automating processes across marketing, sales and support. For employees, that investment has translated into lost work.

 

What Is The Pattern With These Layoffs?

 

A World Economic Forum survey found that 41% of companies expect to reduce their workforce in the next 5 years because of AI. The same survey said that while many traditional jobs will go down, roles in data and AI are expected to double by 2030.

Other well-known names have already taken similar decisions. Oracle and Dropbox linked job cuts to AI adoption, while Amazon’s Andy Jassy told staff in June that the company would need fewer workers in future as generative AI tools spread across the business. CNN’s cut of 200 staff was explained as a digital reorganisation, but the pattern boils down to the same thing: tech taking over what had once been human work.

This pattern shows that automation is not confined to back-office functions. Newsrooms, banks, retailers and even oil companies have all made changes to their workforce structures this year. It is a reminder that automation touches both physical and digital roles, actually… Almost everyone’s industry is at risk now.

 

 

What Is Different About 2025 Layoffs?

 

According to “The Layoffs List of 2025” by Business Insider, who looked at all the layoffs this year, Adidas announced plans to reduce up to 500 roles at its headquarters even though they were sitting in profits. Blue Origin laid off about 10% of its workforce and Burberry said it would cut 1,700 jobs after reporting losses. Even BP cut 7,700 staff and contractors.

The common factor here clearly is not that they’re no longer making money. Many of these companies are reporting good profits while still cutting workers. For them, the issue is how to adjust their operations to fit automation and digital systems. In Burberry’s case, the plan was to save £100 million. For ConocoPhillips, as much as 25% of jobs are set to go as part of restructuring.

This shows that staff reductions are being treated as an organisational reset. For companies, it is about changing how work gets done rather than only watching costs. Salesforce’s own use of the phrase “less heads” captured that bluntly.

 

Where Is Automation Heading?

 

If job reductions are one side of this, job creation is the other. The World Economic Forum data shows that demand for people in fintech, AI and big data could double within 5 years. Companies are automating repetitive or clerical tasks, but they are also hiring engineers, data scientists and product designers to build and run those systems.

That does not soften the blow for the 4,000 Salesforce employees who lost work. For many, retraining may be the only way to stay in the workforce. Some firms, like Ally and Automattic, have paired layoffs with hiring in other areas, but that does not erase the fact that roles once seen as secure are now being re-evaluated.

The question is no longer whether automation will lead to job cuts because it already has. The question now, is how fast people’s jobs will be taken away and which companies will be next to follow Salesforce and all these other big names?