The AI Layoffs Have Come for Freelance Marketplace Fiverr

Fiverr, the online marketplace for freelancers, announced that it is laying off about 250 full-time staff members as part of an effort to transform itself into an “AI-first company.” The layoffs will affect about 30% of the company’s staff and are part of what CEO Micha Kaufman called a “painful reset” in a message to his staff, which he also posted on X—though certainly one that will be more painful for the workers losing their jobs than for him.

Kaufman claims the layoffs mark Fiverr returning to “startup mode” despite being a 16-year-old company. His goal, according to the memo, is to turn Fiverr into “an AI-first company that’s leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers.” That new version of Fiverr, he claims, won’t “need as many people to operate the existing business.”

While a large chunk of the staff that runs the company is being let go, Kaufman said the community of freelancers who count on the platform to land small gigs should not worry: “Rest assured that your business on Fiverr won’t be impacted in any way throughout this transformation. Our commitment to empowering you and democratizing access to opportunities remains steadfast.”

Your mileage may vary on how much you trust that statement if you’re a freelancer counting on a flow of business from Fiverr’s marketplace. A freelancer who sells web design services on Fiverr, for instance, was pretty peeved about the company launching its own AI webpage builder. Earlier this year, Fiverr launched a suite of AI tools as part of its new Fiverr Go platform, which allows freelancers to train AI on their own work, much to the chagrin of freelancers who don’t already rely on generative AI to fulfill work requests. The company also previously ran an ad campaign claiming “nobody cares” if work is completed by a person or AI.

The writing on the wall for Fiverr staff was becoming more evident in recent months. In May, Kaufman sent a company-wide email informing staff, “AI is coming for your jobs.” In an interview with CBS, he said that he wanted to see workers “double or triple the output per unit of time, and the same for the quality,” and encouraged his staff to try to automate as much of their own job as possible. “That might raise the question, will that make them replaceable? And my answer is absolutely not,” he told CBS. About 250 people might disagree.

Kaufman was a little more blunt in a June appearance on the podcast 20VC. In reference to his letter to staff that AI is coming for their jobs, the CEO asked, “Why do you think it’s my responsibility to make you better as professionals? Fuck you,” and complained that too many people don’t want to work and are “either going to be poor or a burden on society.” Seems like a nice guy to work for.