New Delhi: Global technology companies have announced 1,63,427 layoffs since the beginning of 2026, with artificial intelligence (AI) cited as a factor in 91,215 of the job cuts, according to a new report.
The report by TradingPlatforms said enterprise software accounted for around 8.14 per cent of total tech-sector job cuts, making it the fifth most affected technology subsector after Cloud and SaaS, with 37,492 layoffs; e-commerce and marketplaces, with 22,633; IT services, with 16,756; and social media, with 13,592.
Nearly 88.6 per cent of enterprise software layoffs this year have occurred at US-based companies, with 11,792 of the 13,308 job cuts recorded globally.
Cisco recorded the largest number of layoffs among US-based enterprise software companies, cutting 4,000 positions, followed by Amdocs with 2,900 and Autodesk with 1,000.
In Asia and the Middle East, workforce reductions have been spread across key innovation centres, with Israel recording the highest number of layoffs, followed by India and Singapore. The cuts have affected a wide range of sectors, including AI startups, e-commerce platforms and cybersecurity firms.
Israel ranks a distant second to the US, with 660 enterprise software layoffs across two companies.
On July 22, Israeli workplace software maker Monday.com announced plans to cut around 20 per cent of its global workforce, or roughly 620 employees, as part of a restructuring centred on its AI Work Platform.
No company has reduced its workforce more aggressively in 2026 than Oracle, which has cut 25,254 roles in multiple rounds since January.
While Oracle had already begun reducing its workforce towards the end of 2025, the scale of the layoffs escalated sharply in March, when thousands of employees across the US, India, Canada and Mexico were dismissed in a sudden wave of cuts.
Canada-based information management software company OpenText announced in July 2026 that it had cut around 2 per cent of its global workforce, or roughly 400 employees, as part of its “ongoing organisational planning”. OpenText said the impact on its Canadian workforce was minimal, despite the company being headquartered in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Cisco said the roughly $1 billion in restructuring costs arising from its workforce reductions would go towards its AI strategy.
Monday.com described its 20 per cent workforce reduction as a restructuring around its “AI Work Platform”. ServiceNow’s cuts came alongside another milestone, with its AI portfolio crossing $1 billion in annual contract value.
Investors rewarded all three companies. Cisco’s shares jumped 17 per cent in after-hours trading, while Monday.com’s rose 2.3 per cent and ServiceNow’s climbed roughly 9 per cent over the following week.
Stanislava Savisheva, an analyst at TradingPlatforms, said the layoffs had all been attributed to AI.
“The message from markets is increasingly clear: massive waves of layoffs are now seen as a sign of discipline, as long as the story is some kind of pivot toward AI. Fewer employees, framed the right way, now reads as a stronger business, with its priorities straight,” Savisheva said.
With IANS inputs