Hitted by the impact of artificial intelligence, translation tool DeepL plans to cut 25% of its workforce

DeepL, a German startup that develops translation tools, has announced plans to lay off approximately 25% of its employees. CEO Jarek Kutylowski attributed this move to the "enormous structural shift" brought about by artificial intelligence. Kutylowski stated in a LinkedIn post on Thursday that about 250 employees will be laid off. The company currently has just over 1,000 employees. As AI tools replace work traditionally done by programmers, and tech companies reallocate resources to build their own AI products, layoffs across the tech industry are rapidly expanding. Meta announced plans last month to cut 10% of its workforce. Microsoft is offering buyout packages to about 7% of its U.S. employees. Founded in 2017, DeepL initially positioned itself as a competitor to Google Translate, offering tools to help developers build multilingual applications. In recent years, the company has also had to compete with translation services provided by ChatGPT and other AI tools. DeepL raised $300 million in funding in 2024, achieving a valuation of $2 billion, and has previously considered an IPO in the United States. (Jin Shi)