this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he’d do it again (fortune.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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“Every single Monday was called ‘AI Monday,’” Vaughan said, with his mandate for staff that they could work only on AI. “You couldn’t have customer calls; you couldn’t work on budgets; you had to only work on AI projects.” He said this happened across the board, not just for tech workers, but also for sales, marketing, and everybody else at IgniteTech. “That culture needed to be built. That was the key.”

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[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 211 points 2 days ago (4 children)

“They ruthlessly cut costs, R&D, and employee benefits and then replace existing employees with overseas contractors. Innovation and growth take a back seat to sheer profitability.”

This is the operating manual that explains why IgniteTech’s much-publicized AI purge feels more like a familiar private-equity play.
[...]
IgniteTech is owned by ESW. For anyone who’s watched the ESW orbit, that vagueness is not accidental. ESW’s playbook, summarized in a long explanatory dossier that has circulated inside the industry, is blunt: buy distressed software, strip costs, move work to an hourly contractor model through a unit like Crossover (which has been described in Forbes as a “global software sweatshop”), and squeeze recurring revenue out of an existing customer base rather than invest in new products.

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 176 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Yeah this is called AI washing. Basically firing people, outsourcing all the jobs, stripping a company till there is nothing left. The goal is to maximize profits till the company is basically dead and then sell the husk. Because it's done under the AI label, customers and other interested parties see it as being innovative and not just money grabbing.

[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 57 points 2 days ago

Selling artificial intelligence to natural idiots.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

Its HOW pe FIRMS operate.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago

So they could have held paint drying Mondays instead, with the same overall effect

"Every single Monday was called Paint Dry Monday" Vaughan said, with his mandate for staff that they could only watch paint dry. "You couldn't have customer calls; you couldn't work on budgets; you had to only watch paint dry." He said this happened across the board, not just for tech workers, but also for sales, marketing, and everybody else at IgniteTech. "That culture needed to be built. That was the key."

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Customers see it that way?

[–] CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 5 points 2 days ago

Depends who they define as “customers”, probably. The little people using the stuff aren’t customers, in their eyes.

[–] sirboozebum@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Private Equity is finding it increasingly difficult to offload the companies they have taken over.

With some luck, this dickhead will go broke.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

i think whatever entities likely bought out these "bankrupted" companies arnt doing anymore, or trusting the PE firms.

[–] dipcart@lemmy.world 51 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Very interesting. I appreciate the additional information. Saying its for AI but moving it to overseas contractors instead of actually moving it to AI that is actually overseas contractors (like that one AI company that was outed as being 700 Indian developers) is honestly kinda funny. AI is enshittification given form, I suppose.

[–] Norrdec@lemmy.world 47 points 2 days ago

Because AI is Actualy Indians :)

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

and The indians ones might not be as good as the one in the states, so they are getting a much lower quality of product overall.

[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 16 points 2 days ago

I mean they have added a chatbot to their website and I'm sure they have replaced overseas first line support in many products with chatbots as well to encourage their customers to give up on getting support (and ensure that the customers that prevails and get sent to a human coworker are sufficiently pissed off).

[–] Klox@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The AI part is that the drug riddled CEO asked AI leading questions. The AI wholeheartedly agreed the company should speed run late stage capitalism. What more confirmation is needed that AI is the future?

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

i was going to comment how this resembles PE firm tactics, thats probably his endgoal, and AI is just a convenient excuse.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 days ago

This is the relevant context to this puff-piece, this should be stickied right at the top.