Mews Cuts 15% of Staff, Points to AI in Broad Restructuring — Exclusive

Well, well — another day, another CEO waving AI as a magic wand to justify a 15% headcount trim. Mews, a hospitality software darling, is letting go of roughly 202 people (yes, 15% of 1,350, do the maths) and CEO Richard Valtr has the perfect excuse: 'AI now lets one person own work end-to-end.'

So the handoffs that used to justify two or three salaries? Gone, automated, eliminated. How wonderfully efficient. The Hollywood VFX artists we covered last week are probably nodding along — they've seen this script before. Valtr insists this is about 'restructuring,' not just cuts, but the punchline is obvious: if you can describe your role as 'handling data entry between departments,' you're a handoff prime for elimination.

The hospitality sector, already wobbling post-pandemic, now gets a shiny AI-driven efficiency upgrade that costs 200 families their paycheques. Valtr frames it as necessary evolution — which, in the gallows-humour version, translates to 'we found cheaper ways to make you redundant.' No word yet on whether the remaining 'end-to-end' employees get hazard pay for the joy of doing three jobs.