GitLab cuts jobs, flattens management, pivots to AI agents

GitLab announced reductions to its workforce, a flattening of management layers and a reorganization of its research and development division into 60 teams. The company said it will shrink its operational footprint by about 30% and use the resulting savings to develop internal AI agents to automate reviews and approvals.

CEO Bill Staples described the plan as a “strategic reinvestment” and the company labeled the effort an “AI agents push.” Under the reorganization, R&D will be split into smaller cross-functional teams intended to speed product work and decision-making.

GitLab plans to deploy AI agents to handle tasks such as code reviews, approvals and other routine processes that normally require human judgment. The company intends to run the systems on internal workflows first to refine performance before offering the features to customers.

The company will reduce real estate and other operating costs to meet its target of a roughly 30% smaller operational footprint.

GitLab faces competition from GitHub, which is backed by Microsoft and integrated with Copilot and Azure AI. GitHub has rolled out features that use AI for pull request reviews, test generation and security scanning.

Other large technology firms have cited AI development when adjusting workforce levels; Amazon’s leadership described recent layoffs as adjustments to company culture and post-pandemic staffing. Industry analysts note current AI systems are most effective at automating repetitive, lower-skill tasks, while complex engineering and design work continues to rely on human expertise.

Founded in 2011, GitLab evolved from an open-source Git repository manager into a platform covering the full DevOps lifecycle. The company reports more than 50 million developers use its products and holds an estimated 1% of private code worldwide. GitLab went public in 2021 and cut about 7% of its workforce in 2023; the current restructuring is the latest change as it develops commercial AI features.