CSO

After that 2024 Windows fiasco, CrowdStrike has a plan – job cuts, leaning on AI

CEO: Neural net tech 'flattens our hiring curve, helps us innovate'

CrowdStrike – the Texas antivirus slinger famous for crashing millions of Windows machines last year – plans to cut five percent of its staff, or about 500 workers, in pursuit of "greater efficiencies," according to CEO and co-founder George Kurtz.

In a letter to staff, included in a regulatory filing this week, the big cheese explained the change as an effort to move faster and operate more efficiently, citing the alleged transformational power of AI.

"We’re operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs," Kurtz wrote. "To lead at scale, with nearly 10,000 CrowdStrikers and a clear path to $10 billion in [annual revenue], we are evolving how we operate."

That evolution, he explained, will be driven by AI.

"AI has always been foundational to how we operate," said Kurtz. "AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster. It streamlines go-to-market, improves customer outcomes, and drives efficiencies across both the front and back office. AI is a force multiplier throughout the business."

It is also a farce multiplier, or liability, as CrowdStrike explains in the risk disclosure boilerplate that accompanied its aforementioned 10-K regulatory filing with the SEC, America's securities watchdog.

"We utilize AI, which could expose us to liability or adversely affect our business," the cautionary section begins, and then outlines various scenarios in which things might go sideways.

"For example, generative AI has been known to produce a false or 'hallucinatory' interferences or output, and certain generative AI uses machine learning and predictive analytics, which may be flawed, insufficient, of poor quality, reflect unwanted forms of bias, or contain other errors or inadequacies, any of which may not be easily detectable," the passage says, noting that misfires of this sort could harm the biz and/or its customers.

The obligatory warning concludes by stating AI technology is developing rapidly and that it's impossible to predict all the legal, operational, or technological risks that might follow from using AI.

Enterprise HR biz Workday, also keen on AI and staff cuts – on the order of 8.5 percent – mentions similar concerns in its recent 10-K risk boilerplate.

"Many of our products are powered by AI, some of which include the use of large language models and generative AI, for use cases that could potentially impact human, civil, privacy, or employment rights and dignities," the maker of HR and finance software said, downplaying a "meritless" lawsuit "alleging that our products and services enable discrimination."

Despite CrowdStrike's enthusiasm for AI, the threat of import tariffs and the related economic uncertainty may also have something to do with staff reduction.

Anticipating weak demand from Amazon, United Parcel Service in its recent Q1 2025 earnings release cited "changes in the global trade policy and new or increased tariffs" as a risk factor, and announced plans to "reduce our operational workforce by approximately 20,000 positions during 2025 and close 73 leased and owned buildings by the end of June 2025."

According to IT consultancy Janco, companies are looking to automation in lieu of hiring.

CrowdStrike's bet on AI will have to pay off fairly substantially to reach $10 billion in annual revenue. In March, the firm reported $1.06 billion in revenue for its fiscal Q4 2025, which was up 25 percent from the prior quarter. Nonetheless, the security biz lost $92.3 million, having lost $16.8 million during the prior quarter.

The biz will also incur some cost for shedding employees. In an 8-K filing, CrowdStrike said charges would range from $36 million to $53 million, about $7 million of which will be recognized in fiscal Q1 2026, with the remainder realized in fiscal Q2 2026. ®