Airtable's New Owner Slashes Workforce in AI Pivot

Airtable's new owner, Italian tech company Bending Spoons, announced Monday it is laying off a "large part" of the software company's staff. The cuts are part of a plan to rebuild Airtable around smaller teams and artificial intelligence (AI) features. AI refers to computer systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. Bending Spoons bought Airtable, a spreadsheet and database app, for $1.28 billion in August. Federico Simionato, Bending Spoons' product leader, said in a post on X that the layoffs were not about employees' performance. Instead, he said, the company holds a "deep belief that small teams ship more and better." "To everyone leaving: thank you. If you're hiring, these are excellent people and worth a call," Simionato said. The exact number of affected workers was not immediately clear. A Bending Spoons spokesperson said the company could not share more details on how many people would lose their jobs. Airtable product lead Alessandro Savarese wrote in a blog post that cut employees will leave by the end of the week with "substantial separation packages" — financial support given to workers who are let go. "At Bending Spoons, we've seen firsthand how smaller, faster-moving teams with streamlined responsibilities can have an outsized impact, and we have the same ambitions at Airtable," Savarese wrote. He said the company plans to improve Airtable's core platform and invest in AI features. Some laid-off employees may find new work quickly. X product engineer Mridul Singhai responded to the announcement in a post, saying X will "continue to hire & grow people who want to commit."