Impacted by AI, translation tool DeepL plans to cut 25% of its workforce

Golden Ten Data, May 7th｜German startup DeepL, which develops translation tools, announced plans to cut about 25% of its workforce. The company’s CEO, Jarek Kutylowski, attributed this decision to the “massive structural shift” brought by artificial intelligence. Kutylowski posted on LinkedIn last Thursday that around 250 employees will be laid off. The company currently employs just over 1,000 people. As AI tools replace jobs traditionally done by programmers and tech companies redirect resources towards their own AI product development, layoffs across the tech industry are rapidly expanding. Meta announced last month plans to cut 10% of its employees. Microsoft offered buyout packages to roughly 7% of its US staff. Founded in 2017, DeepL was initially positioned as a competitor to Google Translate, providing tools to help developers build multilingual applications. In recent years, the company has also faced competition from translation services offered by ChatGPT and other AI tools. DeepL raised $300 million in funding in 2024, reaching a valuation of $2 billion, and had previously considered an IPO in the US.