- Intuit’s CEO wrote in an email to staff that 1,050 of the 1,800 employees being laid off did not meet expectations.
- The company plans to employ nearly equal numbers of workers in engineering and manufacturing.
- The company is moving forward with a reorganization plan to focus on “key growth areas” such as AI.
Intuit announced Wednesday that it would cut 1,800 jobs, 1,050 of which did not meet expectations, according to an email from the CEO.
“We have significantly raised the bar on our expectations for employee performance,” the CEO wrote in an email included in the SEC filing.
CEO Sasan Goodarzi added in the email that the company believed its staff would be more successful elsewhere, the report said. Intuit did not respond to a request for comment.
The company is also reducing executive staff by about 10% and will cut 300 employees to “streamline work and reallocate resources to key growth areas,” the email said. The tax preparation software company, which offers products such as Credit Karma and TurboTax, is moving forward with a “reorganization” plan to focus on those areas, according to the SEC filing.
The CEO noted in the email that the cuts are not a cost-cutting measure. In fact, the company plans to hire “a roughly equivalent number of employees in fiscal 2025” and expects its overall headcount to grow, the filing said.
“We do not conduct layoffs to cut costs, and that remains true in this case,” Goodarzi said in the letter.
Key areas include the AI-powered assistant Intuit Assist, according to the filing. The CEO also outlined plans to invest in data and AI, accelerate financial solutions and expand its international growth, the filing detailed. The company is consolidating 80 tech roles in locations with growing tech teams, such as Tel Aviv, Toronto and Bangalore.
The CEO said in an email that “the AI era is one of the most significant technological shifts of our lifetime” and that companies that don’t embrace it will be left behind. Intuit plans to hire for positions in engineering and product, and customer-facing positions like sales and marketing, according to the filing.
Intuit isn’t the only company changing its staff to make way for AI advancements. A number of tech companies have done the same, and CEOs at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Dropbox have cited AI as a reason for their layoffs.
The cuts could cost the company up to $260 million, including severance, employee benefits and costs related to stock-based compensation and site closures. However, these estimates could vary, the company noted in the filing.
Terminated U.S. employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of pay and an additional two weeks for each year of service. Employees will have 60 days to end their employment with Intuit, and international employees will receive similar support, with variations depending on local requirements.
“This timing allows everyone who exits to reach the July vesting date for restricted stock units and the July 31 eligibility date for the annual IPI bonus,” Goodarzi said in the email.
