AI translation company DeepL (Germany) announced that about 250 out of 1,000 company employees will lose their jobs because AI makes those positions redundant.
In a LinkedIn post this week, DeepL CEO and founder Jarek Kutylowski said the company “is undergoing a major structural shift in the type of work that exists, who does it, and the number of people needed to do it well. This shift is driven by artificial intelligence.”
According to Kutylowski, the new move helps the company have fewer layers, make decisions faster and significantly reduce the back-and-forth time that slows down large teams.
Founded in 2017, DeepL develops its own AI model and competes with Google Translate in translation. According to AFPthe model is widely used and the company is worth two billion USD by 2024.
Last June, DeepL deployed the DGX SuperPOD system containing Nvidia chips, allowing the entire Internet translation time to be reduced from 194 to 18.5 days. The world’s longest book translation time, In Search of Lost Time by author Marcel Proust, also only takes 0.09 seconds instead of 0.95 seconds like before.
Jarek Kutylowski, CEO of startup DeepL. Image: DeepL
In addition to DeepL, Internet infrastructure and cybersecurity company Cloudflare also said this week that it will cut about 20% of its staff as it restructures operations and accelerates the application of AI tools. According to ReutersCloudflare plans to cut more than 1,100 positions globally, while as of the end of 2025, the company has 5,156 full-time employees.
In March, AI was mentioned as the leading cause of layoffs in the US, accounting for a quarter of more than 60,000 announced layoffs. Globally, according to a survey by Duke University and the US Federal Reserve with 750 financial managers, the number of dismissals attributed to AI in 2026 is forecast to be 9 times higher than in 2025.