Dropbox lays off 16% of its employees and turns to AI
Dropbox has decided to reorganize, with Drew Houston, the boss of the online storage service, announcing the layoff of 16% of the workforce, or 500 employees in total. It thus follows other tech companies which have also laid off in recent months, such as Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon and many others.
The Dropbox boss says the company has had to deal with a slowdown in growth, partly due to the maturation of its business, but also to economic headwinds weighing on its customers. He explains that the company also faces the urgency of focusing more on AI-powered products, which will require hiring people with different skill sets.
“In an ideal world, we would simply transfer people from one team to another”, wrote Drew Houston. “That’s what we did as much as possible. However, our next stage of growth requires a different mix of skills, particularly in the area of AI and early-stage product development. We have recruited excellent talent in these areas over the past two years and we will need them even more.”he added.
Employees will receive free job placement and coaching services, as well as up to 16 weeks of severance pay and an additional week for each year of service with Dropbox.
The layoffs are part of a broader consolidation of the company that is merging its Core and Document Workflows businesses, and carrying out other internal team restructurings. Dropbox plans to hold internal meetings tomorrow and next week to answer questions from employees.
