HubSpot, a US IT software company engaging in cloud-based customer relationship management, announced earlier this week that it was reducing its workforce by 7%, nearly 660 employees. Explaining the rationale driving the difficult decision and the business changes coming ahead, the firm's Indian-origin CEO Yamini Rangan shared a message with HubSpot employees. The note, which has since been published on the company website as well, said that the final call regarding job cuts was approached with "the seriousness and care it deserves." The layoff announcement comes after the US-based company dedicated the past year to shifting its strategy from building software focused on customers' growth to delivering outcomes for them with artificial intelligence. Noting how adopting a new strategy had helped HubSpot transform its product, price and customer service, the chief executive stressed that there was also a need to fundamentally change how the firm competes with its industry rivals to win. Despite pushing for AI, the company's CEO emphasised that the latest wave of job cuts was neither "simply a cost-cutting exercise" nor was it driven by AI-related efficiencies. The layoff notices sent earlier this week divulged that employees impacted in the United States would "get an email within the next 15 minutes with information and support." Meanwhile, the layoff process involving other countries is contingent on "local laws and practices." ALSO READSamsung forecasts record $80 bn quarterly profit – What’s fuelling the jump?  The HubSpot move preceded Amazon's announcement of yet another "small" round of job cuts on Wednesday (US time) impacting under 1,000 employees on the corporate side, according to Reuters and Business Insider's reports citing company spokespeople. The move will reportedly affect employees in the United States, India and the United Kingdom, following a broader restructuring strategy that already expanded last year's layoffs (stretching through January 2026) to 30,000. According to real-time layoff-tracking website Laysoff.fyi, 131,382 tech employees have been laid off across 315 tech companies as of this week, with countless firm citing their "AI-first" approach as the reason. What's driving the HubSpot layoffs? "We need to move faster, stay closer to our customers and focus our resources on our highest priorities to set ourselves up for success in this next chapter. That requires difficult choices about how we are organised," the CEO memo shared with employees read. HubSpot's top boss further detailed that going forward the company will be making three operations-related changes. "Organize around customer outcomes," Yamini Rangan told the team of the first pivot. "Customers don’t think in Hubs and features. They want to generate demand, win deals, delight customers, and scale growth. We will organize product teams around these outcomes instead of Hubs, with each team owning the full customer journey and clear accountability for the outcome." Secondly, the company seeks to build a "flatter organisation with fewer layers." This step will entail reducing management layers and moving decisions closer to the people actually doing the work. The HubSpot CEO said that the organisation's simplification will centre on expediting the decision-making process. Lastly, the software company aims to create agile teams with clear ownership. To achieve this, HubSpot will reduce "fragmented ownership," helping teams make decisions and execute with speed and clarity. Yamini Rangan, a tech industry veteran who previously served as HubSpot's first-ever chief customer officer, made it a point to outline that this week's layoffs weren't driven by "AI-related efficiencies." She noted that the company is determined to continue investing in the booming tech, owing to the belief that it is helping make them more productive. And so, she highlighted that the steps focused on reducing the workforce were all about aligning with their strategy and how the company hopes to operate in the future. "This is not simply a cost-cutting exercise," she maintained in the message to employees. "We have been thoughtful about how we invest in AI while balancing growth and profitability. We have been disciplined about growing headcount slower than revenue, and we will continue to do so." She stressed that even as the change prioritised putting more resources behind the "biggest opportunities," it didn't make implementing the plan any easier. ALSO READAmazon Layoffs: Tech giant cuts under 1000 jobs in latest ‘small’ workforce reduction Severance and benefits offered to laid-off employees HubSpot underscored that it was committed to ensuring laid-off employees have a "dignified, well-supported experience" as they leave the company. As part of that measure, CEO Yamini Rangan noted that while the transition process may differ for every region, it will generally entail severance including 20 weeks of base pay and 1 week per year of service, up to 30 weeks. In addition to offering everyone access to six months of career transition outplacement services to help with job search, the health benefit offerings will look like "U.S.: COBRA (5 months as a lump sum); Global: Modern Health (5 months)." Affected employees will be allowed to keep their company laptops, although they will be cleaned of any HubSpot data remotely, and any work-from-home equipment like monitors and keyboards. Moreover, all employees departing from US operations were offered a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with a HubSpot manager. Others impacted globally will similarly have the opportunity to speak with a manager within the next day, depending on the receipt of layoff notices. For the unversed, HubSpot was founded by Brian Patrick Halligan and Dharmesh Shah over two decades ago. It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). According to the company's profile page featured on Forbes, the software company's share price as of 4 pm EST on October 7 was $220.27, and HubSpot has an employee headcount of 8,500. Having appeared in 33 lists on Forbes, the business news platform mentioned HubSpot in several ranking rosters this year. Most recently, the Yamini Rangan-led firm was featured in the following lists: At No. 243 on 'World's Top Companies for Women,' at No. 32 on 'World's Best Employers,' at No. 243 on 'America's Best Employers for Tech Workers,' at No. 62 on 'America's Best Midsize Employers,' and at No. 193 on 'America's Best Companies,' among others.