It looks like Sea Ltd, the parent company of Shopee and Garena, have also gotten onto the AI bandwagon. Unfortunately, this comes with the old side effect of workers getting laid off. This has affected the e-commerce subsidiary specifically, as reports are pointing at the company cutting staff as AI gets adopted in the workplace.
The Edge cites Bloomberg as saying that the reductions start this week, with Shopeeโs developer workforce already being cut by about 8%. Sources claim that the cuts affect roles like quality assurance, with more potentially to follow. The report does not rule out the possibility of the two being a coincidence, but there have been enough examples out there to see a pattern, even if correlation does not equal causation.
According to the report, Seaโs making structural shift follows CEO Forrest Liโs declaration that a trillion-dollar market capitalisation was possible if the company doubled down on AI. Separately, a Sea spokesperson says that the company regularly reviews and adjusts its staffing needs. โThese decisions are always made after careful consideration. For colleagues affected by any changes, we are committed to providing support during this period of transitionโ, the spokesperson said.
Beyond those, the report also mentions Sea saying that it would work with Google to integrate AI across its operations, including developing AI shopping agents. For now, the company has been embedding AI in what is described as โsmall waysโ, which includes through product recommendations and seller tools, functions that would benefit Shopee more than Garena.
The past couple of years saw pretty brutal layoffs, some of which involve companies investing more into AI. Around the same time last year, national oil company Petronas cut about 10% of its workforce, with the adoption of AI tech being among the reasons for it. To say nothing of the wider global tech industry of course, with Microsoft letting go thousands of workers last year.
(Source: The Edge)