Wix's AI Layoff Excuse: Same Song, Sixteenth Verse

Here we go again. Currency exchange rates also got a mention, but the headline is AI, as it always is. This is the same script Cognizant used, the same script Cloudflare used, the same script Meta used. You could print a bingo card.

Wix is keeping that promise. Abrahami says the company needs to 'operate more efficiently' in light of technological change. Efficiently, in this context, means 'with fewer people whose salaries we'd rather not pay.' The irony is that Wix's entire business model is about making website building easier for non-technical users — the very people who might now find themselves replaced by an AI that can do the same job for zero pounds an hour.

But let's not pretend this is about genuine technological necessity. Wix is not replacing its entire workforce with AI tomorrow. It is using AI as a convenient cover for a restructuring that was probably going to happen anyway. The company expanded headcount during the pandemic boom, as everyone did, and now the macroeconomic winds have shifted. Rather than say 'we over-hired,' or 'our shareholders demand higher margins,' Abrahami invokes the magic letters A-I, as though this absolves him of any responsibility. It's the corporate euphemism of the decade, and it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: CEOs say AI will cause layoffs, so they lay people off and point to AI as the cause, and then the next CEO points to that as evidence.

My prior column on this topic noted that Wall Street isn't buying it either — companies that blame AI for job cuts more often see their stocks fall than rise. Wix's stock? We'll see. But the damage is not just to share prices. Every time a CEO uses this excuse, it normalises the idea that AI is an inevitable job-destroyer, rather than a tool whose deployment is a choice. It shifts the blame from managerial decisions to technology, which is convenient for managers and useless for workers. The Wix employees losing their jobs are not being replaced by AI tomorrow; they are being fired today to please investors who want to see 'efficiency gains' on the next earnings call.

Abrahami also cited currency exchange rate pressures, which is almost charming in its honesty — at least that's a factor beyond his control. But AI? That's a choice. He could have chosen to retrain workers, or to absorb some short-term cost in exchange for long-term loyalty. He chose not to. And he chose to blame a machine. That's not innovation. That's cowardice.

The only genuinely innovative thing about this layoff is how quickly Wix has adopted the industry standard excuse. It's almost impressive: a company whose product builds websites is now using AI to build a narrative in which firing people is inevitable. If only they applied that much creativity to their actual product.