Individuals fear that advances in AI will result in job losses, however not often does an organization’s CEO brazenly admit that AI will assist to scale back their headcount. Turnitin, a plagiarism detection firm whose CEO Chris Caren final yr warned that, in 18 months, his firm would have the ability to cut back 20% of its headcount due to AI, is right now confirming a small set of layoffs.
TechCrunch discovered that Turnitin laid off round 15 individuals earlier this yr, as a part of broader organizational adjustments. Whereas that’s nowhere close to the 20% discount Caren had forecast — Turnitin has over 900 workers, per LinkedIn and Pitchbook information — it’s a set of layoffs we’re notably thinking about, given Caren’s earlier feedback.
Talking at an occasion in 2023, he famous that Turnitin had just a few hundred engineers, however he believed that in 18 months, “we will need 20% of those number of people,” referring to the engineering workers. “And we’ll be able to start hiring a lot of them out of high school versus four-year colleges — probably the same for sales and marketing functions,” he added. His feedback have been made throughout a dialogue about how AI would affect the job market by growing efficiencies.
Turnitin’s software program leverages machine studying and AI to detect if a scholar’s writing is plagiarized. It sells to colleges, faculties, universities, and different academic establishments and works with companions like Coursera, Blackboard, and others.
Already, there are some indicators that AI is changing staff. Klarna lately introduced that its AI Assistant can do the job of 700 staff, stunning the business. (Klarna later clarified that the customer support staff the AI was changing have been employed from outsourcing companies, not direct workers.)
Turnitin confirmed its layoffs in an announcement to TechCrunch, however not the headcount:
“After careful consideration, late last year, we communicated to our global team our decision to make organizational changes to evolve our business strategy, streamline processes, enhance customer focus and support Turnitin’s continued growth. With gratitude for their contributions, Turnitin provided transitional support to impacted team members. Out of respect for their privacy, we decline to comment further on this internal matter.”