Visa is cutting about 2,600 jobs, roughly 7% of its workforce, in a restructuring that CEO Ryan McInerney tied directly to artificial intelligence, according to a staff memo confirmed by the company. The layoffs, which fall mainly on technology and product teams, landed the same day Visa reported fiscal third-quarter earnings with net revenue up 14% to $11.6 billion and GAAP net income up 7% to $5.6 billion.
The numbers tell a more complex story than "AI took the jobs." Personnel expenses jumped 40% to $2.5 billion in the quarter, largely reflecting $563 million in severance costs tied to the workforce reduction. A person familiar with the company's reasoning told CNBC that AI played a significant role in the decision but was not the sole driver, while analysts at Evercore ISI described the move as routine cost and resource reallocation rather than a sign of distress.
The earnings backdrop
Visa had about 34,100 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, up about 8% from the prior year, meaning the cuts trim a workforce that had recently expanded. The company returned $6.2 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends during the quarter. Cross-border volume rose 13%, and the memo indicated plans to reinvest savings in higher-growth areas including cross-border, commercial payments, and stablecoin infrastructure.
The company plans to reinvest savings into higher-growth areas like cross-border payments and stablecoin infrastructure-a strategic pivot that mirrors broader trends in AI for Executives & Strategy.
Communication gaps and ownership
David Grossman, CEO of leadership communication consultancy The Grossman Group, said the memo disclosed clearly and fast but missed a chance for dignity. "The people losing their jobs are not in that sentence," he said, referring to the memo's framing of serving Visa, clients, and partners.
Grossman pointed to a lack of ownership: "Nobody takes responsibility. The single first-person moment belongs to the CEO expressing conviction that the decision is right. That is confidence, and confidence is not ownership." He noted that roughly 34,000 people learned of the 2,600 job cuts before individual notifications began, calling that gap the most damaging hour in the process. "Companies rarely choose that sequence for human reasons. Legal and investor timing pushes the announcement ahead of everything else, and the people absorbing it come last."
His recommendation-brief managers first, equip them for real conversations, and let employees hear difficult news from someone who knows them-echoes guidance often found in resources for AI for Human Resources.
Why this matters for executives and strategy
Visa's move shows that AI-driven restructuring in profitable companies is as much about capital reallocation as it is about automation. The decision to cut technology and product roles while earnings are strong signals an operating model shift, not a cost-cutting emergency. For leaders, the lesson extends beyond the numbers: how a layoff is communicated-and who takes ownership-shapes whether the remaining workforce trusts the strategy. Grossman's critique underscores that even a well-reasoned strategic pivot can erode morale when the human sequence is sacrificed to legal and investor timelines.
Your membership also unlocks:
