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It seems that using artificial intelligence as a convenient excuse for layoffs is quickly going out of style. Unlike many of his fellow tech leaders who have eliminated thousands of jobs this year, claiming they need to restructure teams to take full advantage of AI, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev notably avoided any mention of AI in his message to employees about the company cutting 10% of its full-time workforce—roughly 290 people. The company’s regulatory filing announcing the move also omitted AI, instead describing the cuts simply as a restructuring effort. Still, Tenev did note that the company would use “frontier technologies to push our execution even further,” which appears to be a careful attempt to sidestep the word “AI.” This isn’t surprising: public sentiment against AI and related infrastructure projects has been declining, even as a small group of tech executives rake in enormous profits. Tenev also added to the growing narrative that companies now need to operate with smaller teams and “flatter organizational structures,” stating: “We cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact.”

We’ve seen companies of all kinds—including Amazon, Block, Coinbase, GitLab, and Intuit—use similar language in their layoff announcements. This suggests that large teams, bureaucracy, and siloed departments are now seen as undesirable expenses at a time when AI tools promise to significantly boost productivity. Some analysts believe this is a tacit admission that tech companies over-hired after the COVID-19 pandemic and are now cutting back as costs mount—especially those tied to heavy AI usage. Regardless, these companies are performing quite well. Tech stocks have surged broadly, driven by record revenues, improving profit margins (GitLab reported an 88% gross margin last month), skyrocketing demand for cloud services, and the belief that the billions being poured into data center projects will yield returns many times greater. Robinhood itself reported a 15% improvement in first-quarter revenue in April, and the company says its second quarter looks even better thanks to rising prediction market fees, subscription revenue, and strong equity and options trading volumes as markets stabilize. On Tuesday, the company also announced it is closing “a small number” of open positions and will incur about $28 million in costs related to the layoffs.