CTO says AI layoff claims are often ‘PR excuse’ after viral Reddit post

A commenter identifying as a CTO pushed back on a viral Reddit post claiming an Indian services company laid off nearly its entire developer team over AI efficiency, arguing that blaming artificial intelligence for layoffs is often a public-relations tactic rather than the real cause.

“‘Layoffs due to AI’ is management speak for a good PR excuse for downsizing,” the commenter wrote on the r/developersIndia thread, which had drawn over 1,100 upvotes. “Your company wanted to downsize for some reason, and it sounds better to say ‘we use Claude now,’ rather than ‘the road ahead looks rough.'”

The original poster said management cited the AI model “Claude Fable 5” as the reason around 90% of a 70-person dev team was cut, though the post also noted that “the number of projects drastically reduced” at the company even before the layoffs, a detail several commenters seized on as the more likely explanation.

One commenter summarised the scepticism bluntly: “This has nothing to do with AI.” Others questioned whether the story was fabricated altogether, with one writing simply: “Yep, 100% a fake post.”