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The loss of jobs will affect roughly 10pc of Intuit’s workforce, but the company has stated it plans to hire the same amount in key areas.
US multinational software company Intuit has today (10 July) announced plans to let go of 1,800 employees and close two sites in Edmonton, Canada and Boise, US. The layoffs are part of a wider plan to focus its investment on AI.
Intuit is headquartered in California and, in recent years, has specialised in the provision of generative AI-powered accounting and tax preparation tools to small and medium businesses. Company products include QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and TurboTax.
In a message issued to Intuit’s staff today, CEO Sasan Goodarzi said the move was not an attempt to cut costs, but rather to enable the company to allocate investment to critical areas, to drive growth and support customers.
“This includes reinvesting in the necessary skills and capabilities to support these areas and, as such, we will hire approximately 1,800 new people primarily in engineering, product and customer-facing roles such as sales, customer success and marketing,” he said.
Intuit plans to accelerate investment and hiring in areas such as data and AI, network teams, fintech, human capital management, customer experience and international growth. With this in mind, Intuit hopes to see its headcount begin to grow during the 2025 financial year.
The company plans to lay off 1,050 employees that have been deemed by Intuit to have fallen below company expectations. Roughly 10pc of executives (director and above) will be let go and some executives will find their roles and responsibilities have been expanded.
Additionally, 80 technology roles will be consolidated to sites where the company is growing its technology teams, for example in Atlanta, New York, Bangalore, Tel Aviv and Toronto. The sites that are closing currently employ a total of more than 250 people, a portion of whom will be relocated to other premises. A further 300 roles are being eliminated across the company to streamline work and reallocate resources toward what Intuit deem “key growth areas”.
Goodarzi acknowledged it was an incredibly difficult day and thanked all those who had contributed to Intuit’s success. He also expressed excitement at what the future holds for the company and its present and future employees.
“With the strength of our people, culture and mission, we are positioned to take advantage of this AI revolution and revolutionise our customers’ experiences to deliver undisputed benefits in ways that we could never imagine. Today is day one. Together, we will focus on the future and all the possibilities to power prosperity around the world,” he concluded.
Earlier this year Intuit was criticised by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for what the organisation described as deceptive advertising practices. The FTC prohibited Intuit from advertising that any good or service is free unless it is actually free for all consumers.
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