ClickUp is taking a winner-takes-all approach to its workforce.
Zeb Evans, CEO of the cloud-based productivity platform, wrote on social media on Thursday that the company has cut 22% of its workforce, while simultaneously promising that remaining employees could earn million-dollar salaries.
"This wasn't about cutting costs," Evans wrote on X. "Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay. We'll be introducing million-dollar salary bands."
"If you create outsized impact using AI, you'll be paid outside of traditional bands," Evans added.
The layoffs come after months of rapid AI adoption inside the company, which centralizes enterprise workflows and communication.
Andy Cabasso, a growth operations manager at ClickUp, recently told Business Insider that the company has a mandate to use AI agents more and that it fosters a culture of sharing AI workflows. Cabasso said he oversees 37 AI agents himself.
As of 2021, ClickUp was valued at around $4 billion. According to a 2023 company blog post, it has over 1,000 employees.
In his post on X, Evans said that the company's new goal is to reach "100x output," and added that, rather than gradually improving existing systems, ClickUp needs to rebuild itself from the ground up around AI.
Evans' post also separated the company's future workforce into three types: "builders," "system managers," and "front-liners." According to his description, the first two groups will primarily oversee AI systems and automate parts of their own jobs, while the latter group will focus on customer relationships and represent "the human touch."
The layoff reflects a broader trend sweeping the tech industry, where hundreds, if not thousands, of roles are eliminated at a time, while a small pool of top AI talent is rewarded with unprecedented paychecks.
Meta has notably waged a multibillion-dollar battle to poach talent from the likes of OpenAI over the past year, while recently laying off over 8,000 employees. Similarly, Amazon, Cloudflare, and Atlassian have all seen layoffs this year, which company leadership has directly tied to AI adoption.
Read next
Katherine Li is a junior reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers trade policies, tariffs, and business practices, with a particular interest in Tesla and how larger economic sentiments impact individuals. Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at [email protected] and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social. Expertise
- Trade policies & tariffs
- Economic & social policies in East Asia
- Business & innovative tech
- West Coast AAPI communities
Some of her best work include:Companies are struggling to fill manufacturing positions, let alone plan for what Trump's administration has in mindNightmare on Main Street: Trump's trade war is hurting American small businessesDOGE and economic uncertainty are coming for your work-life balanceCanadian grocery stores are sidelining US products — and American businesses are feeling the pinchPressure ratchets up from Trump administration, Musk, and allies ahead of planned Tesla Takedown mass protests
