DeepL to lay off approximately 250 employees, about 25% of its workforce, as CEO says it will 'fundamentally rethink its approach with AI at its core.'

On May 7, 2026, DeepL, a provider of translation tools, decided to lay off approximately 250 employees. The CEO stated that it was 'the most difficult decision of my career,' adding that the rise of AI was the reason behind the decision.

An important update on DeepL | LinkedIn

DeepL is a company that has been at the forefront of providing translation capabilities using deep learning. According to CEO Yarek Kutilowski, DeepL has been building AI since 2017, long before most companies started thinking about AI, and has been operating under the belief that people should be able to express themselves and work together without being hindered by language.

As AI becomes more widespread globally, the CEO has come to believe that 'to work effectively with AI, we need smaller teams with greater impact and clearer responsibilities.' Kutilowski has reportedly decided to lay off approximately 250 people, stating that this will 'reduce hierarchy, speed up decision-making, and significantly reduce the time spent on countless interactions that slow down large teams.'

CEO Kutilowski added, 'We are in the midst of a massive structural change in terms of what jobs exist, who does them, and how many people are needed to do them well, and the driving force behind this change is AI. This technology is changing how organizations are built, how value is created, and what it means to compete. Most companies sense that change is coming, but very few have truly taken action. The companies that act now will define the next decade. Companies that wait will spend that decade trying to catch up.'

According to CEO Kutilowski, an AI transformation is already underway within the company, impacting everything from product discovery and engineering to pipeline building and customer support. Kutilowski said, 'AI will allow us to focus more energy on the work that truly matters and move forward at an unprecedented speed. It will also eliminate recurring obstacles and daily inefficiencies. We will fundamentally rethink all aspects of customer interaction, from product development to customer acquisition, by centering everything around AI.'

Immediately before this announcement, DeepL notified its paid subscribers that it would no longer process data solely on its own servers and revealed that it would be partnering with Amazon Web Services.

On April 16th, they announced 'DeepL Voice-to-Voice,' a translation service suite for real-time voice communication. Furthermore, they acquired voice translation startup Mixhalo and opened an office in San Francisco, stating that this will significantly advance 'real-time voice translation, the next frontier in language.'

DeepL releases 'DeepL Voice-to-Voice,' a real-time voice translation suite - GIGAZINE