Tech Layoffs Tracker

July 29, 2026

ServiceNow Lays Off Hundreds, Citing 'AI Efficiencies' From the Automation Tools It Sells

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ServiceNow is cutting several hundred jobs and pointing to "real AI efficiencies" generated by its own AI agents, the same ones it sells to automate the customer-support and IT work now being eliminated, as CEO Bill McDermott's 2023 "no job cuts" pledge and his "end 2026 where we started" promise both bend; Double Fine shed 23 of about 90 people, a third of the studio, to survive its spin-off from Xbox; and Microsoft's fiscal Q4 earnings tonight are the first print since the 4,800 July cuts.

July 2026 so far (through July 29): roughly 16,705 precisely counted layoffs across 30 companies through Tuesday, plus several hundred more at ServiceNow (the company calls it a low single-digit percent of about 30,000 staff; the San Diego WARN alone lists 133), 23 at Double Fine as the studio spins off from Xbox, and roughly 20% of Luno's global staff (number undisclosed). The confirmed precise count is unchanged from yesterday because today's additions are reported as ranges or overlap the existing Xbox reset.

ServiceNow cuts several hundred, leaning on the AI tools it sells to customers

ServiceNow confirmed a new round of layoffs on Tuesday, July 28, cutting several hundred jobs as part of what it calls a "global" restructuring. A spokesperson told Business Insider the cuts affect a "low single-digit" percentage of its roughly 30,000-person workforce, which works out to several hundred roles; NowBen and Salesforce Ben first flagged the continued cuts the same day.

This is the second round this year after a June restructuring (NowBen, June 11), and employees who survived June told the San Diego Union-Tribune they felt blindsided to be hit again.

Teams hit. The San Diego Union-Tribune pulled the Tuesday WARN notice for the San Diego office at 4801 Eastgate Mall: 133 positions eliminated, more than half senior and director-level. Customer-facing roles were hit hardest, 30 positions across customer success, customer support, and product success. Engineering and quality assurance also saw steep cuts, and software quality engineer was the single largest job title affected. Separations are effective by September 28.

How staff found out. A worker wrote on Reddit that a separation notice landed in their personal email at 6:53 a.m. with no warning, the day after they had stayed up late handling customer cases (CNBC TV18). A Dublin employee described a layoff call at 10:30 a.m. where cameras and audio were turned off and the attendance list was hidden, so no one knew how many people were on it or which departments were affected. The cameras-off, hidden-roll-call choreography echoes the id Software layoff call reported during the Xbox reset, where the call lasted under 60 seconds and chat was disabled.

Stated reason vs. real mechanism. ServiceNow's statement is unusually direct about AI: "We are driving efficiencies across the business, actively investing in and hiring for AI-focused skills, and managing headcount with discipline to end 2026 where we started" (CNBC TV18). In June the company put it even more plainly: "Our platform is generating real AI efficiencies inside our own business, we run the way we ask our customers to run" (Salesforce Ben).

The mechanism is the sharpest "the AI vendor ate its own" case this cycle. ServiceNow's Q2 earnings, reported July 22, show what it sells: the ServiceNow newsroom launched Otto, a unified AI agent combining Now Assist, Moveworks, and its AI Experience; an AI Control Tower; and an Autonomous Workforce of AI specialists for IT, customer service, employee services, and security. Those are exactly the functions being cut. The company that sells agents to do customer-support and IT work is cutting its own customer-success, support, and QA staff and attributing the headroom to "real AI efficiencies" from those same agents. It is eating its own dog food, and the people let go are in the categories its products automate.

From a position of strength. This is not a desperation cut. The same July 22 earnings release beat the high end of guidance on every metric: subscription revenue $3.88 billion, up 24.5%, ServiceNow AI crossed $1 billion in annual contract value, agentic deployments up ninefold in nine months, and management raised full-year guidance. The stock popped more than 5% after hours, though Business Insider notes shares are still down about 50% over the past year on "SaaSpocalypse" fears that autonomous agents gut demand for traditional software. So a company beating numbers and selling the AI agents that supposedly threaten it is still trimming the humans its agents replace, six days after the blowout. It rhymes with Redis cutting while profitable and Thomson Reuters swapping 500 engineers for 250 AI hires.

The broken promises. NowBen notes this is ServiceNow's first real layoff push after McDermott pledged "no job cuts" in 2023 while peers were cutting. He also told staff at the start of 2026 that ServiceNow would end the year with roughly the same headcount it started with (CNBC TV18). Two rounds in, the second hitting people who survived the first, employees are throwing McDermott's own catchphrase back at him, "trust is won in drops and lost in buckets" (San Diego Union-Tribune). Some favored employees got a generous package and a month to find another internal role; others got the 6:53 a.m. email.

Hiring counter-signal. ServiceNow says it is "actively investing in and hiring for AI-focused skills," an in-house cut-here-hire-there shape seen at Uber (cutting customer service while hiring robotaxi engineers) and Verizon. Net headcount is still meant to end 2026 flat. Unconfirmed Reddit claims of around 3,000 global cuts are not corroborated by the company or any outlet and are not counted here.

Double Fine cuts a third of its staff to survive the Xbox spin-off

Double Fine is laying off 23 of its roughly 90 employees, about a third of the studio, as it separates from Microsoft. Kotaku first reported the cuts on July 28, and founder Tim Schafer confirmed the number on Bluesky: "Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action. Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain" (Engadget).

This is the cost of the spin-off Microsoft framed as a soft landing. On July 6, when Microsoft announced 4,800 cuts, it said it would spin off four Xbox studios rather than shut them down, Double Fine among them. An Xbox spokesperson told Kotaku that "Double Fine fully returned to independent management earlier this week, with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games." But "runway" evidently means a smaller crew: the Psychonauts and Grim Fandango studio, which shipped the well-reviewed Keeper in 2025 and Kiln earlier in 2026, is shrinking to a size it can self-fund. The stated reason is independence sustainability, not AI, and the real mechanism is the same one driving the wider Xbox reset, the Activision-ZeniMax acquisition never closing the Game Pass gap. This is a genuine new development in the most-clicked storyline on this feed, not a re-telling of the July 6 announcement.

Microsoft reports tonight: the first earnings print since the 4,800 cuts

Microsoft posts fiscal year 2026 fourth-quarter results after the market closes today, Wednesday, July 29, with Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood on the call at 2:30 p.m. Pacific (Microsoft Investor Relations, Stock Titan). It is the first financial print since the July 6 cut of 4,800 jobs, of which Xbox took 3,200, and the next real signal for the Xbox reset this feed has tracked all month.

What to watch. Microsoft guided Xbox content and services revenue down by low teens, roughly 11 to 13%, with hardware down too (ts2.tech). Xbox made up just 6.4% of Microsoft's revenue last quarter but took a third of the 4,800 cuts, a layoff rate 5.2 times its sales share. About 1,600 of the 3,200 Xbox cuts are still scheduled through fiscal 2027, and Bloomberg reported more than 1,200 further cuts are still looming. The three numbers that move the stock are Azure's growth streak, Copilot seat adoption, and whether forward guidance treats the July restructuring as finished or leaves room for more. Microsoft has guided about $190 billion in 2026 capital expenditure, mostly for AI infrastructure (Yahoo Finance).

This is a tracking line, not a new layoff. If Nadella or Hood disclose a further cut or a number for the still-unspecified Xbox reductions on the call, that becomes tomorrow's lead.

Briefs

Luno cuts 20% of global staff. The Digital Currency Group-owned crypto exchange is laying off roughly 20% of its workforce, announced July 28, as CEO James Lanigan pivots the business toward institutional and B2B clients and stablecoin infrastructure rather than retail trading (Crypto Briefing). The specific number and regions are undisclosed. It is a repeat visit, Luno cut 35% in January 2023 during the last crypto winter. Not AI. The pivot-to-enterprise shape echoes Uphold's 85-person cut covered yesterday and the broader Polygon and Exodus crypto-cycle pattern.

Tracking

That’s the reading for this issue.