A CEO laid off almost 80% of his employees because they refused to use AI: Two years later he says he would do it again

Artificial intelligence is considered a major challenge for many areas. A CEO shared in a conversation how he restructured his entire company to make it AI-ready. This required layoffs of employees who refused to adopt AI.

Eric Vaughan is the CEO of IgniteTech. IgniteTech is an international company specializing in enterprise software with a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI).

Vaughan describes in an interview with the English-language magazine Fortune that he made a radical decision in his company: In 2023, he laid off about 80% of the workforce because they were not adapting quickly and enthusiastically enough to the comprehensive deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).

Artificial Intelligence as a Major Challenge for Companies

Vaughan explained that he saw artificial intelligence as a major challenge approaching his company in early 2023. For this reason, he launched a large-scale training and investment program (“AI Monday”) for all areas such as sales, marketing, and development. The company is said to have invested about 20% of its revenues to make the company future-ready.

However, there was significant resistance from the workforce: particularly from technical professionals, less so in sales or marketing. Many refused to use AI tools or sabotaged the deployment of the new tools.

In the end, hundreds of employees had to go. Vaughan emphasizes that it was “extremely difficult” and that it was not his actual goal to lay off employees. But he explained that you cannot force people to change their minds:

You cannot force anyone to change, especially not when the person does not believe in it.

Would he make this radical decision again? When asked if he would make the decision again, he replied:

Without hesitation. […] This is not a technical change. It is a cultural change and a business change.

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