American IT group HP announced Tuesday, November 25, in a press release, that it plans to eliminate 4,000 to 6,000 jobs by the end of 2028 as part of a plan to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) that should allow it to increase productivity.
This represents more than 10% of the workforce at the Palo Alto (California) group, which has about 58,000 employees according to its most recent annual report. This is the first time a large company has publicly demonstrated a direct link between staff reductions and the adoption of AI tools.
HP’s three-year plan is a must “increasing customer satisfaction, product innovation, and productivity through the application and activation of artificial intelligence” in the group, according to a press release. Thanks to this initiative, HP aims to generate savings of approximately one billion dollars annually by the end of 2028. Restructuring costs are expected to total 650 million dollars, including 250 million dollars for the 2026 financial year (from November to October).
Stock market crash
HP was born in 2015 from the split of the historic IT group Hewlett-Packard, which was founded in 1939 and then in the process of restructuring. The company has decided to locate its infrastructure, software and business services activities at HPE, while its personal computers and printers are at HP.
Over the last ten years and the breakup of Hewlett-Packard, HP numbers have only increased by 7%. Many observers predict that the generalization of generative AI will lead to the loss of many jobs, and some believe that this movement could be partially or completely offset by the creation of new functions and professions.
Wall Street reacted poorly to this announcement, coupled with the publication of targets lower than analysts’ expectations for fiscal year 2026, and in electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange, HP shares fell nearly 6%. The group announced that these projections, which were considered disappointing by the market, included “related additional costs” Import duties imposed by the Donald Trump administration on products imported into the United States.
