The cybersecurity company that became a household name after causing a massive global IT outage last year has announced it will cut 5% of its workforce in part due to “AI efficiency”.

In a note to staff earlier this week, released in stock market filings in the US, CrowdStrike’s chief executive, George Kurtz, announced that 500 positions, or 5% of its workforce, would be cut globally, citing AI efficiencies created in the business.

“We’re operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs,” he said.

Kurtz said AI “flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster”, adding it “drives efficiencies across both the front and back office”.

“AI is a force multiplier throughout the business,” he said.

Other reasons for the cuts included market demand for sustained growth and expanding the product offering.

The company expects to incur up to US$53m in costs as a result of the job cuts.

CrowdStrike reported in March revenue of US$1bn for the fourth financial quarter of 2025, up 25% on the same quarter in 2024, with a loss of US$92m.

In July last year, CrowdStrike pushed out a faulty update to its software designed to detect cybersecurity threats that brought down 8.5m Windows systems worldwide.

The outage caused chaos at airports, and took down computers in hospitals, TV networks, payment systems and people’s personal computers.

Aaron McEwan, vice-president of research and advisory at consultancy Gartner, said he was sceptical when companies announced AI efficiencies close to reduced revenue forecasts, as CrowdStrike had in March.

“I think particularly in the te