Thomson Reuters to trim engineering headcount as AI reshapes operations
While the company officially describes the reductions as affecting a small number of roles, employee testimony suggests up to 500 positions may be cut, representing 1.8 per cent of the total workforce.
Thomson Reuters announced on Monday that it is cutting a small number of engineering roles globally, attributing the restructuring to the aggressive deployment of artificial intelligence across its businesses. The Canadian content and technology company, which is the parent entity of Reuters News, stated that the changes affect its global staff and are part of a broader effort to align capacity with evolving customer expectations in legal, tax, and regulatory workflows.
An employee who attended a non-public technology staff meeting earlier in the day provided details regarding the scale of the reductions. According to this individual, the company plans to eliminate up to 500 jobs. This figure represents approximately 1.8 per cent of Thomson Reuters' overall workforce of about 27,100 employees, based on calculations from the company's 2025 annual report. The cuts also account for roughly 5.2 per cent of its operations and technology unit, which comprises 9,400 staff members.
The restructuring comes amid a significant wave of job reductions across the technology sector, where artificial intelligence tools have increased the efficiency of writing computer code. Software engineers have been among the first to feel the economic impact of these technological shifts. According to the jobs tracker layoffs.fyi, approximately 120,000 tech workers have lost their positions across 228 companies in 2026, including reductions at major firms such as Meta and Amazon.
Despite the reductions, a Thomson Reuters spokesperson confirmed that the company intends to expand its engineering capabilities in specific areas. The firm expects to hire more than 250 net-new engineering roles globally over the next two years. The spokesperson noted that the large majority of these new positions will be senior and AI-native roles, indicating a strategic pivot in the skill sets required for the company's future operations.
A company representative emphasised that Thomson Reuters is focusing its capacity where it matters most to customers while supporting affected colleagues through the transition. The announcement highlights the ongoing tension between cost efficiencies driven by automation and the need for specialised human expertise in developing and maintaining complex technological infrastructure.
