By Monica O’Shea
Software giant and tech unicorn Atlassian will slash about 1,600 jobs to make way for artificial intelligence (AI).
The job cuts will be split between North America, Australia and India. In Australia, about 30 percent, or 480 workers will be impacted by the decision. Forty percent will be in North America, and 16 percent in India.
“I’m sharing some important news today. I have made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by 10 percent (or 1,600 employees),” CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said in a company update.
“Every Atlassian will receive an email within the next 20 minutes letting you know if you are impacted, or if we’re starting consultation in your region.”
The Australian-founded company is known for software tools including Jira, Confluence, and Trello.
“I believe this is the right decision for Atlassian. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Far from it. I know this has a huge impact on each of you, and it weighs heavily on me and Atlassian today,” Cannon-Brookes said.
The decision to cut staff is directly linked to investment in artificial intelligence.
“We are doing this to self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales, while strengthening our financial profile. We’re also changing the way we work and reorganising around our system of work to move faster,” Cannon-Brookes said.
“But, things have changed. The bar for what ‘great’ looks like for software companies—on growth, on profitability, on speed, on value creation—has gone up.”
Cannon-Brookes also said the aim was not for AI to replace people, but said it would be “disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas.”
Atlassian will offer those impacted a 16-week global separation package, with one week extra for each year of service.
What to Know About Cannon-Brookes?
Cannon-Brookes co-founded Atlassian in 2002 with Scott Farquhar after the pair graduated from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney.
Aside from Atlassian, Cannon-Brookes is also a business and prominent climate activist who has backed the renewable projects including the now-defunct SunCable.
He has also invested via his family investment firm Grok Ventures and his climate fund Boundless Earth.
Cannon-Brookes has also donated $2.4 million to the Climate 200 group, which backs Teal independent MPs across Australia, according to Donation Watch.
While his wealth fluctuates, Cannon-Brookes currently has a net worth of about US$7.3 billion, making him the 517th richest person in the world. In February, he was listed number six on Australia’s 50 richest list with a net worth of US$10 billion at the time.
Atlassian shares have risen 1.52 percent on the NASDAQ at the time of writing, following the news of the job losses.
Thousands of AI-Driven Job Losses
The news of the job cut comes after Australian software company WiseTech Global announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs over multiple financial years to improve efficiencies.
The company said they were redesigning their operating model to “embed AI directly” into their workflows.
“As part of our long-term strategic focus on higher margin recurring revenue and our commitment to building a higher-performance culture, this program will likely result in a reduction of approximately 2,000 roles in FY26 and into FY27,” WiseTech Global said in an investor presentation.
Similarly ASX-listed Block, the owner of Afterpay, announced it would cut 4,000 jobs in late February as part of an AI-driven restructuring.
“We’re reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000,” CEO Jack Dorsey said in late February.
“We’re going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers.”
