Turnitin laid off employees earlier this year, after the CEO predicted that artificial intelligence would allow it to reduce headcount.

People worry that advances in AI will lead to job losses, but rarely does a CEO of a company openly admit that AI will help reduce headcount. Turnitina plagiarism detection company whose CEO Chris Karen He warned last year that within 18 months, his company would be able to cut its headcount by 20% thanks to artificial intelligence, and today he’s confirming a small batch of layoffs.

Turnitin laid off about 15 people earlier this year, as part of broader organizational changes, TechCrunch has learned. Although this is nowhere near the 20% reduction Karen expected, Turnitin has more than 900 employees, according to LinkedIn and Pitch book Data – It’s a group of layoffs that we’re particularly interested in, given Karen’s earlier comments.

to talk At the 2023 eventHe noted that Turnitin had a few hundred engineers, but he believes that within 18 months “we will need 20% of that number of people,” referring to the engineering staff. “And we’ll be able to start recruiting a lot of them from high school versus four-year colleges — and it’ll probably be the same for sales and marketing jobs,” he added. His comments were made during a discussion on how AI will impact the labor market by increasing efficiency.

Turnitin leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect if a student’s writing is plagiarized. It sells to schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions and works with partners like Coursera, Blackboard and others.

Indeed, there is some evidence that artificial intelligence is replacing workers. Klarna announced this recently Its AI assistant can do the job of 700 workers, Industry shock. (Klarna later clarified that the customer service staff the AI ​​replaced were hired from outsourcing companies, not direct employees.)

Turnitin confirmed the layoffs in a statement to TechCrunch, but not the number of employees:

“After careful consideration, late last year, we informed our global team of our decision to make organizational changes to advance our business strategy, streamline operations, enhance customer focus, and support Turnitin’s continued growth. Grateful for their contributions, Turnitin has provided transitional support to affected team members. Out of respect for their privacy, we decline to comment further on “This is an internal issue.”