Intuit is cutting hundreds of workers in San Diego to focus on AI

Financial software company Intuit is cutting 277 jobs in San Diego as part of a broad restructuring to focus on artificial intelligence.

Companywide, the cuts involve nearly 3,000 positions, 17% of Intuit’s workforce, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said Wednesday.

The company’s “new chapter of growth” will bolster its AI-driven strategy, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi told employees on Wednesday. “We need to move with far greater velocity, urgency and discipline.”

The restructuring will require a write-off of $300 million to $340 million, most of which will be booked in the current quarter.

The layoffs are concentrated heavily in engineering, product, marketing and technical management roles, with many senior software engineers, staff engineers, product managers and marketing leaders affected.

The cuts also extend deep into leadership, including vice presidents, directors and principal-level employees.

This isn’t Intuit’s first time trading white-collar workers for AI investment. In July 2024, Intuit conducted a similar round of layoffs, though not at this scale.

SaaS-pocalypse

As companies race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, their workforces are paying the price.

“AI got better and cheaper. Companies laid off workers, then used the savings to buy more AI capability, which led them to lay off more workers,” he said Alap Shah, co-founder of AI company Littlebird.

Investors call the downsizing of software staffs the “SaaS-pocalypse." With the rise of advanced AI agents such as Claude Cowork that can write code, companies that buy software services on subscription began replacing it with AI.

Companies selling SaaS, or software as a service, such as Intuit, have been left scrambling to adjust.

Intuit, which sells tax-preparation and other financial software - including its mainstay TurboTax product - has seen its stock price plummet almost 43% this year. It fell nearly 4% Wednesday after reports of the layoffs.

This fall is despite posting strong growth. In its third fiscal quarter ended April 30, Intuit reported $8.6 billion in revenue, up10% over the same quarter a year earlier, and operating income of $4 billion, up 8%. The firm’s largest revenue source was its consumer segment - based in San Diego - which contributed $5.3 billion.

Intuit did not respond to the Union-Tribune’s request for an interview.

‘Saying goodbye’

“Saying goodbye is never easy, and I want to acknowledge the weight this news carries for all of us,” Goodarzi said in a news release Wednesday. Last year, Goodarzi’s total compensation was $36.8 million, including cash incentives and stock awards.

The company said in a release that it plans to reduce layers of management, reduce overlap across TurboTax and Credit Karma, and reallocate resources to its primary growth engines by “streamlining parts of our engineering and product organizations.”

A vicious cycle

Many software companies - including Amazon, Cisco, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, each of which has let go of thousands of employees - are stuck in the same vicious cycle.

“The companies most threatened by AI become AI’s most aggressive adopters,” Shah said. Software companies were being “disrupted by better workflow automation, and its response was to cut head count and use the savings to fund the very technology disrupting it.”

The tech industry has already cut more than 100,000 jobs this year, according to Statista. Layoffs are on track to outpace 2024 and 2025.

At Intuit

Intuit employees impacted by the layoffs will receive 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks per year of tenure, with a final departure date of July 31, 2026.

The severance package also includes at least six months of health insurance, mental health support, career transition services and immigration assistance for visa holders.

Intuit owns the 11.2-acre campus in the Del Mar Heights/Carmel Valley area, according to real estate tracker CoStar. Intuit employed about 18,200 employees globally as of July 31, 2025.

In addition to layoffs, Intuit will close offices in Reno, Nev., and Woodland Hills.

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