Anyone worried about AI and their job security would do well to heed the cautionary tale of IgniteTech, an enterprise software company.
In early 2023, IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughn dropped the hammer on nearly 80% of his workforce because they refused to adapt to AI fast enough.
As Fortune reveals, Vaughan had launched “AI Mondays” – weekly mandates dictating that employees spend time exclusively on AI each Monday, including learning and applying the tool (1).
Marketing and sales departments dove in, experimenting with AI for drafting campaigns and streamlining workflows. But technical staff balked, expressing skepticism over AI’s accuracy and reliability.
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For Vaughn, the resistance was as much about mindset than about technology and tools.
“Changing minds was harder than adding skills,” he later said.
If the company couldn’t move as one toward an AI-first future, he decided it would be better to cut the AI resisters loose and start fresh with AI adopters.
Two years later, Vaughan points to the results as proof that his gamble paid off.
The benefits — and costs — of a radical reset
With an AI-positive workforce, IgniteTech launched multiple patent-pending AI products, executed a major acquisition and sustained profit margins of around 75% — numbers most software companies can only dream of. By his telling, the culture shock was exactly what the business needed.
“Give people the ability to multiply themselves [with AI] and do things at a pace,” Vaughn said.
He enthusiastically promotes his company’s non-negotiable AI-first approach. Vaughn even gave a keynote speech about it — “AI or Bust: The Non-Negotiable Revolution” — at the 2024 Generative AI Expo (2).
But IgniteTech’s approach raises uncomfortable questions: What happens to employees who refuse to embrace AI at the pace their employer demands? And what happens to companies that bet everything on it?
The IgniteTech case suggests there can be huge short-term rewards, but for everyday workers, the lesson is clear: resistance is becoming dangerous.
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Why AI is now a career survival skill
People Management, an HR-focused magazine, notes that today, Microsoft factors AI usage into performance reviews, pressuring staff not just to accept AI but demonstrate they’re using it productively (3).
When it comes to hiring new employees, AI fluency is moving from a “nice-to-have” to a baseline expectation, as employers increasingly expect job candidates to have some competency and fluency in AI tools, workflows and concepts.
This trend is especially pronounced in fields like finance, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, marketing and design.
In Canada, adoption of AI tools has surged in 2025, with 50% of office employees now reporting use of AI for work, up from 33% in 2024 (4). The Future Skills Centre reports that 56% of Canadians are in roles that are at high risk of being replaced by AI and automation (5).
It seems that simply refusing to use AI – or waiting for it to “blow over” – is a career risk. Workers who hesitate may find themselves falling behind colleagues who can deliver faster, cheaper, or more innovative results with AI at their side.
And as companies double down on productivity, those gaps can quickly become grounds for reassignment, missed promotions, or even layoffs.
But Martin Colyer, director of innovation and AI strategy at HR Consultancy LACE Partners, told People Management that this tough approach can cost companies in other ways.
“Mandating adoption is always difficult as it can have the opposite effect and backfire … not least on performance, morale and even attrition,” he said.
Even employees who embrace AI aren’t guaranteed work.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has openly stated that AI efficiencies will reduce the company’s corporate headcount (6).
As CNBC reports, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke told his teams they can’t ask for more staff until they’ve checked whether an algorithm could do the same work as a new hire (7).
Proceed with caution but don’t stand still
While the new AI-focused workforce may be leaner and more efficient, critics argue that it threatens the human expertise that build companies in the first place.
AI remains flawed, prone to errors, hallucinations and bias. Overreliance on automated tools can create risks for employees and employers, potentially damaging companies’ credibility — internally and externally.
For most workers, the smarter path lies in the middle.
Learn how AI applies to your specific role, experiment with the tools and integrate them where they add value. At the same time, understand their limits and keep human judgement front and centre. That balance, combining efficiency with oversight, will become increasingly important as AI spreads into every corner of a business.
Eric Vaughan’s decision to fire nearly four out of every five of his workers may seem ruthless, even reckless. He conceded he doesn’t necessarily recommend his strategy to others, though he told Fortune he would do it all over again.
“This is not a tech change,” he said. “It is a cultural change, and it is a business change.”
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Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Fortune (1); IgniteTech (2); People Management (3); Business Wire (4); Future Skills Centre (5); AP News (6); CNBC (7);
This article originally appeared on Money.ca under the title: This tech CEO once laid off 80% of his staff for not doing this 1thing fast enough — but is it necessary?
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.