“A painful reset” — Fiverr lays off 30% of its employees in a sweeping AI-first overhaul

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The gig economy can be unstable. Freelancing often means unpredictable work and income, without benefits like health insurance, and with little job security in the long run.

Fiverr, a popular platform in the gig economy, recently experienced some workforce changes affecting its full-time employees. The reason? The introduction of artificial intelligence.

Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman recently announced the company will be operating more like a startup, according to a post on X. He initially shared this news with his employees in a memo.

Kaufman argues that technology is evolving so rapidly and offering so much potential that we need to adapt quickly and innovate to remain competitive.

Kaufman emphasized that Fiverr is a leader in using AI in all aspects of its business, and that the company needs to quickly increase its adoption of AI-powered work methods.

I’m hearing from Kaufman that Fiverr isn’t just looking at layoffs – they need a complete overhaul of how everything works. It’s not enough to just cut back on staff; they’re saying the whole system needs to be rebuilt to really take advantage of AI. It sounds like a massive undertaking, but they feel it’s necessary to stay competitive.

Today marks a big shift for Fiverr. We’re rebuilding the company to be truly focused on AI – meaning a more streamlined, efficient operation. We’re aiming for a modern, AI-powered tech foundation, and while we’ll be a smaller team, we expect everyone to be significantly more productive. We’re also simplifying our structure by reducing the number of management levels.

Micha Kaufman

Fiverr is planning to reduce its workforce by around 250 employees across all departments, which CEO Michael Kaufman describes as a difficult but necessary step. With a typical staff of 750 to 800 people, this represents about 30% of the company’s team.

Kaufman doesn’t specify which jobs will be eliminated by AI, but he does express gratitude to the departing employees for their work.

I noticed he also reassured customers that their experience on Fiverr wouldn’t be disrupted at all during these changes. He wanted to make it clear things would continue as normal for them.

Fiverr’s “AI-first” approach is, unfortunately, not unusual

Fiverr recently announced it’s cutting jobs as it adapts to artificial intelligence, joining a growing trend. This move mirrors Duolingo’s decision earlier this year to use AI instead of some of its contracted workers.

If you’ve been keeping up with all the AI stuff lately, you’re probably not shocked by this. I mean, experts and the people *building* these AI systems have been talking about possibilities like this for ages now!

As an analyst, I’ve been following the discussion around AI’s impact on the job market, and the warnings are becoming increasingly stark. Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, recently urged people to be realistic, predicting that AI could eliminate around half of entry-level white collar positions. And it’s not just him – Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, a leading AI expert, has even projected a much more significant loss, suggesting up to 99% of jobs could be at risk by 2030. These are serious predictions that demand attention.

According to a July 2025 report by Kevin Okemwa, Microsoft cut costs by $500 million through a combination of layoffs – over 15,000 employees – and greater adoption of artificial intelligence. This happened alongside a significant $80 billion investment in AI infrastructure.

In July, Intel announced plans to lay off around 5,000 US employees to invest in artificial intelligence. More recently, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated that the company had reduced its workforce by 4,000, noting that AI now handles about half of Salesforce’s work.

This will fundamentally change how we see the world, how we work, and how our government functions.

Mustafa Suleyman

AI is increasingly taking over jobs previously done by people, and this trend is expected to continue. Businesses are finding that using AI lowers labor costs and increases profits, making it a compelling option.

According to Microsoft’s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, artificial intelligence has the potential to dramatically increase productivity more than anything else in human history. However, it’s not guaranteed that people will benefit from this advancement.

Suleyman adds:

This will profoundly change how we see the world, how we work, and how our political systems function. It will even challenge our basic understanding of what it means to be human.

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is an online platform, originally from Israel, where people can hire freelancers for various tasks.

If you’re a freelancer with skills like graphic design, you can offer your services on Fiverr. You create a profile showcasing what you do and decide how much to charge.

When someone needs help with a project, they can browse through many freelancers on Fiverr. Fiverr earns money by taking a percentage of each completed job.

Fiverr is a platform that connects people, but doesn’t actually *do* the work itself – similar to how Best Buy sells products without manufacturing them. The work is primarily done by the freelancers, or through automated systems, with clients often involved in the process.

As a researcher, I’ve been looking into how this company manages to function so effectively despite having a relatively small team – especially considering they serve around 4 million customers globally. It’s even more striking now, given the recent layoffs impacting their AI division.

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2025-09-18 00:11