General Motors Lays Off Hundreds of IT Workers in Shift Toward AI-Focused Talent

General Motors is laying off approximately 600 salaried IT employees, representing more than 10% of its IT department, as of May 12, 2026, while simultaneously hiring workers with AI-specific expertise in areas like AI-native development, data engineering, cloud engineering, and prompt engineering. The cuts are part of a deliberate skills swap rather than permanent headcount reductions, as GM seeks employees who can build AI systems from the ground up rather than simply use AI as a productivity tool. The restructuring follows significant leadership changes, including the hiring of AI lead Behrad Toghi from Apple in October 2025 and the departure of three top software executives in November 2025, including chief AI officer Barak Turovsky after just nine months. The move signals that enterprise AI adoption requires fundamentally rebuilding workforces rather than layering AI tools onto existing teams, pointing to where large-enterprise technology demand is heading.

GM IT department layoffs

• ▪The General Motors IT department layoffs are not all permanent headcount reductions, as General Motors is still hiring people for roles in the IT department but for different skills
• ▪General Motors cut about 1,000 software workers in August 2024
• ▪General Motors conducted the IT department layoffs as a deliberate skills swap to clear out workers whose expertise no longer fits and make room for workers with AI-focused backgrounds
• ▪General Motors laid off more than 10% of General Motors' IT department, or about 600 salaried employees, as of May 12, 2026

AI-focused hiring strategy

• ▪General Motors is seeking capabilities in AI-native development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, agent and model development, prompt engineering, and new AI workflows for its IT department
• ▪General Motors brought on Rashed Haq as General Motors' vice president of autonomous vehicles, and Rashed Haq spent five years at Cruise as Cruise's head of AI and robotics
• ▪General Motors hired Behrad Toghi, who previously worked at Apple, in October 2025 as AI lead
• ▪General Motors is looking for people who know how to build with AI from the ground up, including designing the systems, training the models, and engineering the pipelines, not just use AI as a productivity tool

Leadership restructuring

• ▪Three top executives left General Motors' software team in November 2025: Baris Cetinok, senior vice president of software and services product management; Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering; and Barak Turovsky, a former VP at Cisco who spent just nine months as General Motors' chief AI officer
• ▪Sterling Anderson, co-founder of the autonomous trucking startup Aurora and a veteran of the autonomous vehicle industry, was hired by General Motors in May 2025 as chief product officer
• ▪Sterling Anderson pushed to consolidate General Motors' disparate technology businesses into one organization

Enterprise AI workforce transformation

• ▪General Motors has laid off white-collar employees in several departments over the past 18 months as General Motors focuses resources on high-priority initiatives, including AI
• ▪The specific capabilities General Motors is hiring for, including agent development, model engineering, and AI-native workflows, point directly at where large-enterprise demand is heading
• ▪General Motors' restructuring signals that enterprise AI adoption in practice involves not just adding AI tools on top of existing teams, but deliberately rebuilding the workforce from the ground up

Perspective of Laid-off IT workers

• ▪The laid-off General Motors IT workers are losing their jobs not due to overall headcount reduction but because their expertise no longer aligns with General Motors' AI-focused direction
• ▪The General Motors layoffs affect workers whose traditional IT skills are being replaced by demand for AI-native development, data engineering, and prompt engineering capabilities