San Francisco, California-based Scale AI, an artificial intelligence company making tools for collecting, formatting, and validating training data for artificial intelligence applications, has announced it has laid off 20% of its workforce and embarked on other cost-cutting measures including reassessing the company's real estate footprint and curbing future hiring.
The reduction in force impacted 140 employees.
Founder and CEO Alexandr Wang noted that the layoffs were the result of optimistic future projections.
“As a result, I made the decision to grow the team aggressively in order to take advantage of what I thought was our new normal. For a time, this seemed to prove out — we saw strong sales growth through 2021 and 2022. As a result, we increased headcount assuming the massive growth would continue. However, the macro environment has changed dramatically in recent quarters, which is something I failed to predict. Many of the industries we serve, such as e-commerce and consumer technology, have been buoyed by the pandemic and are now experiencing a painful market correction. As a result, we need to prepare ourselves for a very different economic environment.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?