Repurposing staff as AI automates low-value tasks

Uptake of cutting-edge tools may see the company hiring higher-value employees instead of freshers

- Jas Bardia & Shouvik Das

Freshworks Inc., an India-born software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm, will join a growing league of companies changing their hiring strategies this fiscal to focus more on engineers with niche skills as artificial intelligence (AI) automates mundane tasks.

This, however, may not lead to large-scale layoffs as the company is seeing a steadily increasing number of its clients adopting AI tools and services, according to chief executive officer (CEO) Dennis Woodside. The uptake of cutting-edge tools and services will likely see the company continuing to hire, with its focus on higher-value employees instead of freshers and entry-level engineers.