Big companies are restructuring to cut expenses, improve efficiency, and adapt to changing market conditions. Plus, the rise of automation and artificial intelligence has also led to job redundancies in certain sectors. And part of their restructuring plan includes laying off staff.
A recent example is Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which announced layoffs in early 2024, affecting employees in its core engineering and hardware teams as part of cost-cutting measures. But Meta and Tiktok are already following suit.
TikTok carried out extensive layoffs within its African operations in June 2024 due to a global restructuring strategy. Content operations together with marketing and trust and safety teams faced layoffs during the restructuring. More than fifty percent of the African team working mainly in South Africa and Nigeria experienced layoffs from TikTok’s larger workforce that previously numbered at least 100 members.
The layoffs occurred after initial reductions in March 2024 and were part of ByteDance’s worldwide restructuring strategy which affected teams across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The company has officially denied allegations that the layoffs stemmed from regulatory hurdles in the U.S. by explaining that the decisions were from continuous business evaluations and required organizational modifications.
TikTok’s restructuring effort mirrors actions taken by Meta and Microsoft who both cut their African workforce while continuing to invest in the region.
What does this mean for you?
It means that the incorporation of artificial intelligence in sectors that run the world will cause people to lose their jobs. Most especially people that do repetitive tasks like Data entry and content operations. Other fields are not left out too. This AI incorporation will affect everyone and everyone.
What you should do, however, is key AI into your skill set. AI is not sent to render you jobless but to help you to perform your tasks more efficiently.
If you’re unsure of how to incorporate AI into your skill set, stick around here.
Joseph Busari
