AI shift drives GM to cut over 10% of IT workforce

General Motors (GM) has laid off more than 10% of its IT department, affecting about 600 salaried employees, in what the company describes as a deliberate restructuring aimed at replacing outdated skill sets with AI-focused expertise, News.Az reports, citing TechCrunch.

In a statement, the automaker said the changes are part of an effort to prepare the company for the future, though it did not provide detailed specifics. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future,” the company said.

The layoffs are not entirely permanent reductions in headcount. A person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that GM continues to hire for its IT division, but is targeting different skill sets than before.

The most in-demand capabilities now include AI-native development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, as well as agent and model development, prompt engineering, and new AI workflow design. In practice, this means GM is seeking employees who can build AI systems from the ground up — designing architectures, training models, and developing data pipelines — rather than simply using AI tools for productivity.

Over the past 18 months, GM has reduced white-collar staff across multiple departments as it reallocates resources toward priority areas such as artificial intelligence. In August 2024, the company cut around 1,000 software-related jobs.

The company’s software workforce has undergone significant restructuring since May 2025, when Sterling Anderson — co-founder of autonomous trucking startup Aurora and an autonomous vehicle industry veteran — was appointed chief product officer. In November, several senior executives left GM’s software division, including Baris Cetinok, Dave Richardson, and Barak Turovsky, amid efforts to consolidate the company’s fragmented technology operations into a single organization.

Since then, GM has expanded its AI leadership team, hiring Behrad Toghi from Apple as AI lead in October and appointing Rashed Haq as vice president of autonomous vehicles. Haq previously worked at Cruise, GM’s former self-driving subsidiary that was later shut down.

The restructuring reflects a broader trend in enterprise AI adoption, where companies are not merely layering AI tools onto existing teams but actively rebuilding workforces around AI-first capabilities. GM’s hiring focus on agent development, model engineering, and AI-native workflows signals where large-scale corporate demand is increasingly heading.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev