source: techcrunch ai: gm just laid off hundreds of it workers to hire those with stronger ai skills
level: business
general motors laid off more than 600 salaried it employees, over 10% of the department, as part of a deliberate skills swap. the automaker is clearing out roles that no longer match its needs and hiring people with ai-focused backgrounds. a source familiar with the matter said the company is still hiring for it, but for different capabilities. the most wanted skills include ai-native development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, agent and model development, prompt engineering, and new ai workflows. gm wants people who can build ai systems from scratch, not just use ai tools.
the layoffs follow a series of changes in gm's software and ai leadership. in may 2025, sterling anderson, a former aurora co-founder, became chief product officer. last november, three top software executives left as anderson consolidated technology units. since then, gm hired behrad toghi from apple as ai lead and rashed haq, former head of ai and robotics at cruise, as vice president of autonomous vehicles. the restructuring shows a shift from adding ai tools to existing teams to rebuilding the workforce with ai skills at the core.
gm's move signals how large enterprises are adopting ai in practice. the specific skills it seeks, like agent development and model engineering, point to where demand is heading. this is not about incremental upgrades but a fundamental rethinking of the it workforce. for the industry, it means companies may increasingly replace traditional it roles with ai-specialist positions, reshaping hiring and career paths.
why it matters: it shows how ai adoption is changing workforce demands, pushing companies to replace traditional it roles with ai engineering skills.
source: techcrunch ai: gm just laid off hundreds of it workers to hire those with stronger ai skills