General Motors Is Replacing Traditional IT Roles With AI-Focused Jobs

General Motors has laid off more than 600 salaried employees from its IT department as the automaker reshapes its workforce around AI-focused engineering and software development roles.

The cuts affect more than 10% of GM’s IT organization, according to the company, which confirmed the layoffs after they were first reported by Bloomberg. The automaker said the restructuring is part of a broader effort to prepare its technology organization for future priorities.

“GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future,” the company said in a statement.

The layoffs are not strictly a reduction in overall technical hiring. A person familiar with the changes told TechCrunch that GM continues to recruit aggressively for new positions tied to artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and advanced software systems.

The company is specifically seeking workers with experience in AI-native development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, model and agent development, prompt engineering, and AI workflow design. The shift reflects a broader effort to move beyond traditional enterprise IT operations and toward building systems designed around AI from the start.

In practice, GM is prioritizing engineers who can build AI infrastructure, train and integrate models, and develop production workflows around emerging AI systems rather than employees focused primarily on maintaining legacy software environments.

The restructuring follows a series of software and technology changes inside GM over the past 18 months as the automaker increases investment in AI and software-driven operations.

In August 2024, GM cut roughly 1,000 software positions as part of an earlier reorganization effort. More recently, the company has overhauled leadership inside its software division following the hiring of Sterling Anderson as chief product officer in May 2025.

Anderson, a co-founder of autonomous trucking company Aurora and a longtime autonomous vehicle executive, has been leading efforts to consolidate GM’s technology and software operations into a more unified organization.

Last November, several senior executives departed GM’s software group, including Baris Cetinok, senior vice president of software and services product management; Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering; and former chief AI officer Barak Turovsky.

GM has since added new AI-focused leadership hires. The company brought in former Apple employee Behrad Toghi as AI lead and hired Rashed Haq, formerly Cruise’s head of AI and robotics, as vice president of autonomous vehicles.

The workforce changes highlight how major industrial companies are increasingly reorganizing technical teams around AI capabilities rather than layering AI tools onto existing structures. GM’s hiring priorities suggest growing demand for engineers focused on agent systems, AI model integration, and cloud-native software infrastructure as traditional manufacturers accelerate software and automation initiatives.

This analysis is based on reporting from TechCrunch.

Image courtesy of General Motors.

This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.