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The summer of 2025 hasnt been a good one when it comes to job security in the tech industry. Since May, tens of thousands of technology workers have lost their jobs. In May, that included workers from Panasonic, Match Group, Google, and CrowdStrike. In June, layoffs affected employees from Microsoft, Disney, Bumble, and other companies. Unfortunately, July 2025 is turning out to be no different when it comes to layoffs from big-name tech companies. Here are some of the biggest names in tech that have laid off workers since this month began. Microsoft Without a doubt, the worst layoffs news this month came from Microsoft. In June, the company conducted two rounds of layoffs, including in its Xbox division. Those layoffs followed around 6,000 job cuts in May. But those cuts combined pale in comparison to July. That’s when Microsoft reportedly said it was cutting up to 9,100 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce. Fast Company reached out to Microsoft for comment. The cuts are widely seen as a way for the company to reallocate expenditures from labor pay to AI investment as the software giant, like so many other tech companies, pursues artificial intelligence advancement at all costs. Worse, layoffs can destroy lives, so it’s important that companies handle them with delicacy and care. But thats something Microsoft failed to do. Many of Microsofts laid-off workers lost their jobs due to Microsofts shift to AI, so it was a kick in the pants when Xbox executive producer Matt Turnbull posted on LinkedIn, just days after the layoffs, that recently laid-off Microsoft employees may want to consider using AI to help with the emotional load of a job loss. The post was soon deleted after public uproar. ByteDance TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has a significant workforce presence in Bellevue, Washington, comprising approximately 1,000 employees. But as GeekWire reported on July 7, ByteDance plans to lay off 65 of them. Twenty-seven of those workers will be laid off at ByteDance, while 38 at TikTok will lose their jobs. The roles are reportedly connected to its e-commerce unit, which includes TikTok Shop. Fast Company reached out to ByteDance for comment. In a statement confirming the cuts to GeekWire, a TikTok spokesperson said, As the TikTok Shop business evolves, we regularly review our operations to ensure long-term success. Following careful consideration, weve made the difficult decision to adjust parts of our team to better align with strategic priorities. Intel After Microsoft, chipmaker Intel is the tech giant that has posted the most job losses in July so far. As reported by Manufacturing Dive, the company is laying off more than 5,000 workers, with most of those job cuts happening in two states: California and Oregon. Jobs in Texas and Arizona will also be lost. Its unknown which departments at Intel will be hit the hardest. Fast Company reached out to Intel for comment. In statement confirming the job cuts to Manufacturing Dive, an Intel spokesperson said, We are taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company. Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution. Like Microsoft and other tech giants, Intel is funneling its financial resources into artificial intelligence. That asset reallocation is likely a driving factor behind the job cuts as the company seeks to cut costs wherever it can. Glassdoor and Indeed (Recruit Holdings) On July 11, Recruit Holdings, the Japanese parent company of job sites Glassdoor and Indeed, announced it would be cutting 1,300 employees in its HR Technology segment. That number equates to about 6% of its total workforce. Again, the shift to artificial intelligence is likely one of the reasons behind the cuts. In a memo seen by Fast Company, Recruit CEO Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba said that “AI is changing the world, and we must adapt by ensuring our product delivers truly great experiences for job seekers and employers”. Lenovo Consumer PC makers arent immune to layoffs, either. This week, Chinese computer giant Lenovo announced it would be laying off 3% of its full-time U.S. workforce. That equates to about 100 positions, according to The News & Observer. At least some of the layoffs are expected to affect workers at the companys U.S. headquarters in the North Carolina Triangle area, which includes Raleigh and Durham. Confirming the layoffs, a Lenovo spokesperson said, We are currently making strategic reductions in some parts of our North American business and will continue to invest and focus on initiatives that accelerate the growth and the overall transformation of the company. Scale AI While the industry shift toward artificial intelligence is at least a partially driving factor behind many of the layoffs announced in July, one AI company itself has also announced layoffs. Scale AI, a fast-growing data annotation companywhich recently received a $14.3 billion investment from Metahas announced it will cut 14% of its workforce, reports CNBC. Scale AIs business involves adding labels and other markers to the data that is used to train AI. These annotations help AI understand what it is looking at. As part of the deal with Meta, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will head Metas new artificial intelligence research lab. The cuts are reportedly being made to reduce excessive bureaucracy at the company after it expanded its generative AI capacity too quickly, according to Scale AIs interim CEO Jason Droege. In a memo to employees, Droege said, These chnges will make us more nimble enabling us to react more quickly to shifts in the market and customer needs. Fast Company reached out to Scale AI for comment. 80,000 tech workers laid off in 2025 so far July has so far been a brutal month for tech layoffs, especially thanks to the large numbers of workers laid off from Microsoft, Intel, Indeed, and Glassdoor. This month’s layoffs add to 2025’s grim total, which now stands at over 80,000 tech workers who have lost their jobs since the year began, according to data from layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi. The 80,000 layoffs came from cuts at 159 tech companies. To put that 80,000 figure in comparison, it’s about half of the 152,000 tech workers laid off in all of 2024. Given that July is the midway point of the year, it means that, so far, 2025 tech layoffs are on par with layoffs in 2024. Going back further, the worst year for layoffs recently has been 2023, which saw 264,000 tech workers from 1,193 tech companies lose their jobs.
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E-Commerce
Cambodia on Wednesday said that an order by Prime Minister Hun Manet for government bodies to crackdown on criminal cybercrime operations being run in the country had resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects so far this week.Hun Manet issued the order authorising state action for “maintaining and protecting security, public order, and social safety.”“The government has observed that online scams are currently causing threats and insecurity in the world and the region. In Cambodia, foreign criminal groups have also infiltrated to engage in online scams,” Hun Manet’s statement, dated Tuesday, said.The United Nations and other agencies estimate that cyberscams, most of them originating from Southeast Asia, earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually.More than 1,000 suspects were arrested in raids in at least five provinces between Monday and Wednesday, according to statements from Information Minister Neth Pheaktra and police.Those detained included more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 Chinese, and 75 suspects from Taiwan and 85 Cambodians in the capital Phnom Penh and the southern city of Sihanoukville. Police also seized equipment, including computers and hundreds of mobile phones.At least 270 Indonesians, including 45 women, were arrested Wednesday in Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand notorious for cyberscam and gambling operations, the minister said. Elsewhere, police in the northeastern province of Kratie arrested 312 people, including nationals of Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, while 27 people from Vietnam, China and Myanmar were arrested in the western province of Pursat.Amnesty International last month published the findings of an 18-month investigation into cybercrime in Cambodia, which the human rights group said “point towards state complicity in abuses carried out by Chinese criminal gangs.”“The Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring a litany of human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labor and torture being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than 50 scamming compounds located across the country,” it said.Human trafficking is closely associated with cyberscam operations, as workers are often recruited under false pretences and then held captive.“Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said.Cambodia’s latest crackdown comes in the midst of a bitter feud with neighboring Thailand, which began with a brief armed skirmish in late May over border territory claimed by both nations and has now led to border closures and nearly daily exchanges of nationalistic insults. Friendly former leaders of both countries have become estranged and there have been hot debates over which nation’s cultural heritage has influenced the other.Measures initiated by the Thai side, including cutting off cross-border electricity supplies and closing crossing points, have particularly heightened tensions, with Cambodia claiming they were churlish actions of spite to retaliate for its intention to pursue its territorial claims. Thailand said its original intention was to combat long-existing cyberscam operations in Poipet.Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report. Sopheng Cheang, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
A new set of AI tools is coming to Slack, designed to help users quickly find and utilize information from their chatsand even from data stored in connected business apps. “It serves as the hub, or your work operating system, to be able to get work done, to make things more productive,” says Slack CEO Denise Dresser. On July 17, Slack announced the general availability of an enterprise search feature. Users on Enterprise+ plans will now be able to search information from integrated apps like Google Drive, Box, Microsoft Teams, and corporate parent Salesforces systems directly from within the Slack search box. “Slack is a very natural place to look for things and to initiate that search, because a lot of what prompts people to go look for something is something that happens in Slackeither a notification or a question from somebody in a message, or something you see in a channel that you don’t quite understand, says Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer. [Image: Courtesy of Slack] Even within those conversations, users will soon be able to ask AI for help understanding specific messages, such as defining corporate terminology and acronyms or putting messages into the context of a broader discussion. AI will also highlight action items for individual users, helping those with limited time to focus on top priorities. A language translation feature has also entered general availability for Business+ and higher-tier plans, enabling multilingual teams to ask AI to translate messages into their preferred languages. Users with Pro and higher-level plans can use AI to generate meeting notes from Slack Huddle conversations. Soon, Slacks AI will even be able to create user profiles, offering insights into team members roles and recent contributionsespecially useful in large organizations. [Image: Courtesy of Slack] “We do a lot here to make sure it feels right and doesn’t feel creepy,” Seaman says. “We have it be positive. We have it only access what’s available publicly.” Slack Canvas, the platforms tool for creating shared documents and collaborative notebooks, will also benefit from AI. The assistant will leverage Slacks conversational data to help with tasks like drafting onboarding documents or turning brainstorming sessions into project briefs. These updates are part of Slacks broader effort to help users cut through the information overload of modern office life, and to solidify the companys position as the go-to hub for finding information and AI-powered assistance. Dresser says Slack has a head start, given how many people already know and enjoy using it to connect and collaborate. “The more that people love being there, and they can find what they need to do their job, the more they’re going to want to stay in Slack,” Dresser says. For many teams, Slack already acts as a central repository of vital information, containing records of key conversations and company updateseven before integrating external data sources. As Dresser points out, the Slack name was originally said to stand for searchable log of all conversation and knowledge, and AI may increasingly help users take action based on that information, or quickly grasp what’s already been discussed. [Image: Courtesy of Slack] “You search for information, you’re able to very quickly then take action right in the flow of work on that information so you don’t have to go somewhere else,” Dresser says. Slacks business customers also trust its security and privacy models. Many already integrate Slack with other apps, including to enable communication with AI bots and agents. Even as new AI features roll out, Slack emphasizes that it wont use customer data to train new AI models, and that its systems will only access information a user already has permission to see. Slack, which began introducing AI features about 18 months ago, also ensures that AI responses include citations, such as links to relevant chats. This transparency could give Slack an edge over other AI tools that lack easy access to internal knowledge. As Dresser says, We really do think between being trained on your Slack corpus and seeing the citations, it’s been a huge benefit.”
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E-Commerce
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