As more and more firms integrate artificial intelligence into their processes, there has been a growing temptation for companies to reduce headcounts in favour of automation.
Fintech unicorn Klarna last year announced it would be eliminating over 1,000 roles, transferring responsibility of their duties to bots.
Popular language learning platform Duolingo similarly declared much of the work done by humans, typically contractors, will now be done by AI agents.
The promise of cutting staff costs without a drop in productivity may sound enticing to businesses weathering the global economic storm, but for Payhawk chief executive Hristo Borisov, AI-led downsizing simply betrays a lack of innovation.
“For those companies, they don’t see an innovation path on the forefront,” the fintech boss told UKTN.
“They see it as a great way to cut costs and to stay where we are and I would say that a company that is cutting engineering doesn’t have an exciting and compelling vision for the future.”
Payhawk, which specialises in spending management solutions for businesses, is by no means ignoring innovations in AI technology.
According to Borisov, AI has been positioned as central to the company’s entire strategy, having itself built AI agents to assist staff functions.
However, rather than replacing engineers with AI, the company is expanding its team to support this mission.
“For us, it’s very important, the developers are the enablers. We’re not hiring them to just write code, we’re hiring them to solve problems, and they can solve those problems much faster with AI.”
Borisov accepted that in the future, some roles will likely be less essential because of AI and for newer companies, avoiding too much hiring in favour of using automation can provide an early boost.
However, he believes that ultimately, cutting engineering will only make a firm tread water.
It is still early days for AI integration across various industries, so knowing the real impact of automating processes and what that means for modern workforces will take time. But for Borisov, at such a critical juncture, there is no sense scaling back on innovation.
The post Payhawk CEO: Cutting jobs because of AI shows a lack of innovation appeared first on UKTN.
