Mixed Messages

This week, Intuit—provider of TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp—announced it is laying off 1,800 employees, about 10% of its total headcount.
 
CEO Sasan Goodarzi made a point to note that the purpose of the layoff is not cost-cutting. Rather, it is a simultaneous culling of underperformers (about 1,000 of those let go were “not meeting expectations”) and a decisive shift to an AI focus. To replace the outgoing employees, about 1,800 new people will be hired in AI-related areas, with more investment in the company’s AI-powered financial assistant, Intuit Assist.
 
From a corporate messaging perspective, I see how shareholders and to some degree customers—two of the three key constituent groups whose interests a CEO must balance—will be pleased to see the company keeping pace with AI. But many Intuit employees, those making up the third key constituent group, are likely puzzled by the packaging of this development. Layoffs are always difficult, but the bundling of several m…