5. AI on agendas of downsizing vendors
Mass vendor layoffs continued in 2025, with AI more often than not getting the blame.
In September, IT Channel Oxygen rounded up six vendor giants jettisoning staff in the name of the two-lettered buzzphrase.
This included Microsoft, whose transformation for the AI era “might feel messy at times”, CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged in a letter to staff in July following two rounds of swingeing layoffs.
Since then, another industry giant in the form of HP has announced plans to slim its workforce by 7-10% as part of an ‘AI adoption and enablement plan’.
The pattern is now being repeated in the IT consulting world, with Accenture recently revealing it has cut 11,000 staff who it claims can’t be retrained for the age of AI.
Will these AI-fuelled job cuts be mirrored in the channel?
Not so, according to this recent IT Channel Oxygen discussion. Future growth for partners will “come in exciting ways, but may not always be headcount driven”, Wanstor’s Candice Arnold said, however.
At the same time, some top channel partners are repositioning themselves for the AI era, with Insight recently restyling itself as an “AI-first solutions integrator” and Advania an “AI services provider”.
4 stories were bigger than this one. See following page for more…
