DeepL, a German startup developing translation tools, announced plans to lay off approximately 25% of its workforce. CEO Jarek Kutylowski attributed the move to a “massive structural shift” brought about by artificial intelligence. Kutylowski posted on LinkedIn on Thursday that about 250 employees will be laid off. The company currently has slightly over 1,000 employees. Layoffs are rapidly expanding across the tech industry as AI tools replace tasks traditionally performed by programmers, and tech companies reinvest resources in building their own AI products. Meta announced plans to lay off 10% of its workforce last month. Microsoft offered buyouts to about 7% of its U.S. employees. Founded in 2017, DeepL initially positioned itself as a competitor to Google Translate, providing tools to help developers build multilingual applications. In recent years, the company has also faced competition from translation services offered by ChatGPT and other AI tools. DeepL raised $300 million in funding in 2024, reaching a valuation of $2 billion, and had considered an IPO in the U.S. (Jinshi)