GM just laid off hundreds of IT workers to hire those with stronger AI skills

General Motors has laid disconnected much than 10% of its IT department, oregon astir 600 salaried employees — successful a deliberate skills swap: clearing retired workers whose expertise nary longer fits and making country for immoderate with AI-focused backgrounds.

GM confirmed to TechCrunch that it had conducted layoffs; they were archetypal reported by Bloomberg News.

In an emailed statement, the automaker framed the layoffs arsenic means to hole it for the future, without providing specifics. “GM is transforming its Information Technology enactment to amended presumption the institution for the future,” the institution said.

These layoffs are not each imperishable headcount reductions. A idiosyncratic acquainted with the layoffs told TechCrunch that the institution is inactive hiring radical for roles successful its IT department, but for antithetic skills. The astir sought-after capabilities are AI-native development, information engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, and cause and exemplary development, punctual engineering, and caller AI workflows. In applicable terms, GM is looking for radical who cognize however to physique with AI from the crushed up — designing the systems, grooming the models, and engineering the pipelines — not conscionable usage AI arsenic a productivity tool.

GM has laid disconnected white-collar employees successful respective departments implicit the past 18 months, arsenic it focuses its resources connected high-priority initiatives, including AI. In August 2024, for example, the institution chopped astir 1,000 bundle workers.

The bundle workforce has undergone important alteration since Sterling Anderson — co-founder of the autonomous trucking startup Aurora and a seasoned of the autonomous conveyance manufacture — was hired successful May 2025 arsenic chief merchandise officer. Last November, three apical executives near the company’s bundle squad arsenic Anderson pushed to consolidate GM’s disparate exertion businesses into 1 organization: Baris Cetinok, elder vice president of bundle and services merchandise management, Dave Richardson, elder vice president of bundle and services engineering, and Barak Turovsky, a erstwhile VP astatine Cisco who spent conscionable 9 months arsenic GM’s main AI officer.

GM has since moved to capable the spread with caller AI-focused hires. It hired Behrad Toghi, who antecedently worked astatine Apple, successful October arsenic AI lead. The institution besides brought connected Rashed Haq arsenic its vice president of autonomous vehicles. Haq spent 5 years astatine Cruise — the self-driving conveyance institution acquired and aboriginal shuttered by GM — arsenic its caput of AI and robotics.

For the industry, GM's restructuring is simply a awesome of what endeavor AI adoption really looks similar successful signifier -- not conscionable adding AI tools connected apical of existing teams, but deliberately rebuilding the workforce from the crushed up. The circumstantial capabilities it's hiring for -- cause development, exemplary engineering, AI-native workflows -- constituent straight astatine wherever large-enterprise request is heading.