First came the AI ‘teammates’, then the layoffs: the new reality for Atlassian staff now looking for work

Atlassian laid off 1,600 workers (about 10% of its workforce) with little warning, including staff who were building AI features into the company's products. The company cited the need to become more agile, invest further in AI, and break even, as its market value had dropped significantly from US$77 billion in 2021 to about US$13 billion by early 2025. Affected employees report feeling blindsided by the redundancies, which came despite strong performance and without clear explanations, and they struggled with unclear communication about severance packages and next steps.