CEO Fires 80% of Staff for Refusing AI, Claims It Was Necessary for Survival

Two years ago this CEO fired 80% of staff for refusing AI; today he says he was right By Ashley J .DiMella / March 10, 2026 atOptions={'key':'64835f310807c9e82924b9b909ea6763','format':'iframe','height':250,'width':300,'params':{}} The email went out at 5:42 a.m., long before the sun pulled itself over the glass towers of the city.

By 9:15, an entire company had been turned on its axis. Security badges stopped working. Slack channels dimmed to silent gray. Desks stood suddenly ownerless, a scatter of coffee mugs and stress balls and half-watered succulents. In total, 80% of the staff—developers, marketers, ops people, designers—were out.

Their crime, if you asked the CEO, was simple: they refused to work with AI. The Morning the Company Broke In interviews, he would later say it felt “surgical.” But for the people sitting in their cars in the parking garage, reloading their inboxes in disbelief, it felt more like an earthquake. People cried.

Some laughed, that breathless, disbelieving laugh that appears when reality suddenly splits. A woman who had just signed a lease collapsed into her best friend’s arms. Someone hurled their access badge into the elevator shaft.