GM just laid off hundreds of IT employees to hire people with strong AI skills

General Motors has laid off more than 10% of its IT department, or about 600 salaried employees — in a deliberate trade-off: getting rid of workers whose skills aren’t up to par and making room for AI-focused ones.

GM confirmed to TechCrunch that it had made layoffs; they were the first report and Bloomberg News.

In an emailed statement, the automaker proposed the removal as part of a future maintenance plan, without providing specifics. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future,” the company said.

These layoffs do not reduce the population permanently. A person familiar with the layoffs told TechCrunch that the company is hiring people to work in its IT department, but for different skill sets. The most sought-after areas are AI development, data engineering and analysis, cloud engineering, and the development of agents and models, dynamic engineering, and new AI processes. In theory, GM is looking for people who know how to build with AI from the ground up — building systems, training models, and building pipelines — rather than using AI as a design tool.

GM has laid off workers in several departments over the past 18 months, as it focuses its resources on key areas, including AI. In August 2024, for example, the company cut 1,000 computer workers.

The programming staff has undergone significant changes since Sterling Anderson — co-founder of autonomous vehicle startup Aurora and a veteran of the autonomous vehicle industry — was hired in May 2025 as. chief sales officer. Last November, three adults he left the company’s software group as Anderson pushed to consolidate GM’s technology businesses into a single organization: Baris Cetinok, senior vice president of software and operations management, Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and operations engineering, and Barak Turovsky, a former VP at Cisco who spent nine months as GM’s senior AI chief.

GM has moved to fill the gap with new AI-focused hires. It hired Behrad Toghi, formerly of Apple, in October as head of AI. The company also brought on Rashed Haq as its vice president of autonomous vehicles. Haq spent five years at Cruise – the self-driving car company that was acquired and closed by GM – as head of AI and robotics.

For companies, GM’s overhaul is a sign of what AI adoption looks like — not just adding AI tools on top of existing teams, but intentionally rebuilding the workforce from the ground up. Borrowing capabilities — agent development, model engineering, AI-based workflows — point the way for large enterprises.