‘First of its kind’: WiseTech’s sweeping job cuts signal brutal truth for the AI era
More AI-related job cuts are coming, and the market doesn’t seem to mind it when it sees them.
WiseTech’s move to slash 2,000 jobs or nearly a third of workforce signals a brutal reality for anyone anxious about artificial intelligence. More job cuts are coming, and the market doesn’t mind it when it sees them.
Shares in the beleaguered logistics software company, which has suffered through a torrid couple of years due to scandals involving its founder Richard White, bounced more than 10% on Wednesday after it announced the job cuts, the largest to date in Australia relating to AI, alongside its half-year results.
“This is the first of its kind, I haven’t seen such quantum of job cuts or cuts to R&D at an ASX software company before driven by productivity benefits” Canaccord Genuity head of technology research Owen Humphries, told Capital Brief.
While WiseTech shares did bounce off their lowest levels since 2022, the redundancies seem to have given ASX investors a glimmer of hope that SaaS businesses can still prosper in the AI age.
