Visa, a global payments leader, has announced a major workforce reduction, cutting around 2,600 jobs - or in other words about 7% of its global workforce - as part of a restructuring effort to improve operational efficiency and invest in future growth areas.
The layoffs will mainly affect technology and product teams, but employees from other business functions will be impacted, the company said. The move is coming as the payments business is undergoing a transformation driven by AI, digital commerce, stablecoins, and changing consumer payment attitudes.
In a memo to employees, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said the company needs to continue to evolve to be competitive in a fast-changing payments landscape. The restructuring is intended to simplify operations, improve efficiency and divert resources towards high-growth opportunities, McInerney said.
AI is now a big part of Visa's business and the layoffs are not so much the result of AI adoption as the product of the company's overall investment in the field, they said. In fact, the workforce reduction is part of a larger strategy to make things simpler for Visa, and to increase the investment in areas such as cross-border payments, business-to-business (B2B) solutions, digital payment infrastructure, and emerging financial technologies.
Visa has dramatically expanded its workforce over the past decade and has over 34,000 employees worldwide at present. But changing technology trends and increasing automation have forced the organization to reconfigure its executive structure to accommodate the business climate. In fact, thousands of Visa employees already use the company’s internal generative AI tools to speed up product design and reduce the cost of operations.
Visa continues to report solid financial performance despite the layoffs. It has consistently surpassed Wall Street estimates in recent quarters, thanks to robust consumer spending and a surge in digital payments. Visa shares rose slightly after the restructuring announcement as investors were pleased with how the company is positioning itself for long-term growth.
Visa’s decision is indicative of a larger trend in the technology and financial services industry that has seen big companies lay off workers and invest in AI and automation. And industry peers like Mastercard, Block, Meta, Amazon, and Cisco also have been restructuring as they adapt to changing markets and technological disruption.
The next few weeks will be for the employees to be notified and transition support to go through the restructuring. Meanwhile, Visa has said that it remains very much on the cutting edge of innovation and is committed to investing in products and services to create the future of digital commerce.
Although the layoffs represent Visa’s biggest workforce reductions in recent years, the company maintains that the restructuring is in place to shore up Visa’s competitive position and enable sustainable growth in an increasingly technology-driven payments ecosystem.
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