Half of the company’s workforce, including employees at its U.S. subsidiary e2open, will be eliminated through these layoffs.
WiseTech Global, an Australian logistics software company, announced on Wednesday its intention to cut approximately 2,000 jobs. This decision comes as the firm integrates artificial intelligence throughout its engineering and customer service functions.
These workforce reductions, slated to commence in the latter half of FY26 and continue into FY27, are expected to decrease staff by as much as 50% in areas such as product & development and customer service across the entire organization, including e2open. The company clarified in its statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that those affected will not be reassigned to other roles within WiseTech.
Chief Executive Zubin Appoo declared in the statement, “Software development has undergone its most profound transformation in decades.” He further asserted, “I am ready to state unequivocally: the period where manually crafting code was the central activity of engineering has concluded.”
The company’s website states that WiseTech is the creator of CargoWise, a supply chain management platform utilized by over 22,000 businesses in 193 nations, encompassing 23 of the top 25 global freight forwarders.
Appoo noted that AI enhances “the effectiveness of our knowledge in logistics and trade, the extensive data sets WiseTech possesses, and the network advantage we’ve developed over three decades.”
Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO of Greyhound Research, however, advised skepticism regarding the narrative of AI-driven efficiency. He commented, “The assertion that manual coding is no longer the fundamental aspect of engineering is not based on engineering findings. It represents a strategic declaration.”
While acknowledging that AI-assisted development has boosted workflow velocity, Gogia suggested the underlying reason is different. He stated, “AI serves as the rationale for fundamentally adjusting cost structures.”
Vendors undergoing restructuring in parallel with their clientele
WiseTech is not the only company arriving at this conclusion.
Last year, Salesforce trimmed its customer support team from roughly 9,000 to 5,000, attributing the change to AI. Microsoft eliminated about 15,000 positions in 2025, with CEO Satya Nadella mentioning that AI tools now generate up to 30% of the company’s code. In 2025, AI was the main reason cited for close to 55,000 layoffs in the U.S., and corporate boards are urging CEOs to achieve workforce cost reductions of 20% or more using AI.
The layoffs at WiseTech further contribute to the growing trend of AI-driven job losses, now impacting the very software providers that enterprise clients rely upon.
According to Gogia, WiseTech’s action solidifies a wider transition. He observed, “AI is no longer presented as merely an improved feature. Instead, it’s being framed as a mechanism for labor reduction. We are seeing a move from AI augmenting human work to AI defining a workforce strategy.”
This paradigm shift is already becoming a reality for Chief Information Officers.
An emerging risk for business clients
For CIOs overseeing operations with CargoWise, these reductions instantly prompt concerns about service continuity. WiseTech’s statement revealed that 11 of its biggest freight forwarder clients currently have under 20% of their anticipated users live on the platform. This implies that several significant deployments are underway while the vendor reduces its engineering and support personnel by half.
Gogia indicated that the period of greatest risk would not be right away. He explained, “The most vulnerable timeframe is six to eighteen months from now, once seasoned engineers have departed, AI systems are still developing, and support protocols are being restructured.” He advised that CIOs should demand clear human accountability for escalations beyond automated initial responses, along with contractual Service Level Agreements that ensure a specific timeframe for human intervention, rather than merely confirming receipt of an issue.
In addition to the workforce reductions, WiseTech unveiled a change in its commercial model, which directly impacts purchasers of enterprise software. The company reported that around 95% of CargoWise clients have already moved to its new transaction-based pricing structure, known as CargoWise Value Packs, shifting from the previous per-seat licensing model after its December 2025 introduction. Appoo clearly articulated the underlying reason as structural: “SaaS companies that generate revenue based on seats or users will face disruption from AI.”
With AI decreasing the human workforce at client companies, revenue tied to seat licenses diminishes, a challenge that enterprise software providers have widely been contending with. WiseTech stated that it made “the proactive and intentional choice to move away from seat-based charges to concentrate on monetizing transactions, where pricing is aligned to the value provided via automation, processing volume, and scalability.”
Gogia remarked that this change extended in significance beyond just WiseTech.
He asserted, “This is not a situation unique to WiseTech. It represents a fundamental restructuring of SaaS business models driven by AI economics.” He cautioned that this change introduces fresh cost unpredictability for enterprise clients, as transaction-based pricing is susceptible to fluctuations from seasonal volume surges, periods with numerous exceptions, repeated automation attempts, and supply chain interruptions. WiseTech declined to provide further comments when requested.
