‘Not a cost-cutting exercise’: CEO Bill Staples as GitLab plans to cut jobs, reinvest in AI agents

GitLab Inc., which makes software that helps developers with coding projects, said it is cutting jobs to free up money to spend on a market opportunity for artificial intelligence agents.

Shares fell more than 8% in after-market trading. Chief Executive Bill Staples said in a memo to employees Monday that the cuts “are not an exercise in AI optimization or cost-cutting.”

“We plan to reinvest the vast majority of our savings back into the business to accelerate our unique opportunity in the agency age,” he added, referring to the market where AI agents are used to complete business tasks.

GitLab will cut layers of management and reorganize its research and development teams while reducing the number of countries in which it operates. The company will also “refactor internal processes with AI agents, automating reviews, approvals, and handovers to speed us up.”

Staples doesn’t yet know how many roles this process will eliminate and expects to share the results of the process in GitLab’s quarterly earnings report on June 2.

“We must re-examine headcount for each role to ensure we are optimizing for speed and customer outcomes,” Staples wrote. “In some cases, AI can augment and accelerate what team members do; in other places, we need to expand certain roles so we can move faster.”

The company reaffirmed its guidance for the 2027 quarter and fiscal year.