OpenText—OpenText cut roughly 880 jobs (4% of workforce) in March 2026, continuing a multi-year AI-driven restructuring plan
OpenText's ongoing 'Business Optimization Plan' has repeatedly framed workforce reduction as a consequence of AI automation. In April 2025, CEO Mark Barrenechea told employees in an internal email that AI was the company's 'number one priority and baseline expectation,' stating 'the work still needs to be done, it's just going to be done with a machine via AI' -- a message that preceded roughly 1,600 layoffs (about 7% of headcount) in May 2025. The company cut roughly 880 more jobs (about 4% of its ~22,000-person workforce) in March 2026 as the plan continued, following an initial 1,200-person round in 2024. Cumulative cuts across the multi-year plan exceed 3,700 employees, despite the company's Canadian headcount growing over the same period.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Responsible Automation | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Worker Rights | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.429 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (2 signals)
BetaKit reports OpenText job cuts tied to ongoing AI-driven restructuring
BetaKit reported employees describing job cuts of roughly 880 positions (about 4% of OpenText's ~22,000-person global workforce) in March 2026, part of the company's continuing multi-year Business Optimization Plan.
BetaKit reports CEO Barrenechea's internal email calling AI the company's 'number one priority'
BetaKit's earlier reporting on the May 2025 layoff wave (roughly 1,600 roles, ~7% of headcount) quotes CEO Mark Barrenechea's internal email describing AI as a baseline expectation and stating role elimination work would be 'done with a machine via AI' -- the same rationale OpenText cited through its subsequent 2026 restructuring rounds.