Financial Review: Canva’s rare job cuts target AI-related jobs

Gary Pageau ,

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According to a Financial Times article by Amelia McGuire, high-flying graphics company Canva has laid off 10 technical writers, nine months after telling them to embrace generative artificial intelligence tools. This is the first layoffs at the company ever.

“Ten of 12 technical writing staff were made redundant. It’s a small proportion of the company’s 5000-strong staff, but it’s a significant moment for one of the country’s highest profile tech companies ahead of a likely Nasdaq listing in the next few years.

“Canva was recently valued at $US32 billion ($49 billion) after an undisclosed number of shares changed hands late last year.

“Technical writers are an important part of the software development pipeline and are responsible for writing and updating internal manuals that dictate how the rest of a company’s staff should complete their roles. At Canva, they had been responsible for writing the engineering handbooks and were hiring for new team members only last year.

“Employees who spoke to The Australian Financial Review, under the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely, claimed the technical writers diligently followed the direction to use “any and every” generative AI tool in their work. Staff members said they had been assured by the company that the use of AI wouldn’t lead to a loss of jobs.“

A Canva spokesperson confirmed the redundancies.

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Gary Pageau is principal of InfoCircle LLC, continuing his marketing communications career. InfoCircle LLC is a marketing and communications consulting firm, specializing in business-to-business markets. For nearly 25 years, he was with PMA International, serving most recently as Publisher, Content Development and Strategic Initiatives. His primary responsibilities included overseeing the Association’s editorial department, marketing research unit, education and corporate relations department.