Did AI cut 200 jobs at Redis? Its CEO says AI has changed how the company builds software, and engineering took the biggest hit

Redis, the company behind the widely used open-source database, cut about 200 roles worldwide on 15 July 2026, chief executive Rowan Trollope announced in a memo to employees published on the company's own blog. He tied the cuts directly to how AI has changed the work. "AI not only changes what our customers need. It changes how we work," he wrote. "In R&D in particular, we have made significant progress re-engineering how we work for this new reality. The way software is designed, written, tested, shipped, supported, and improved is changing in real time." The consequence he spelled out: "In Product and Engineering, for example, we are moving to smaller teams and significantly streamlined processes," built around individual builders, player-coaches and people directly accountable for delivery. R&D saw "the most significant impacts", and with much of that team based in Israel, Trollope acknowledged the changes "may feel heavy in this region", while saying Israel remains Redis's largest site. Not all of the 200 are put down to AI: elsewhere the memo describes winding down workstreams "not delivering the results our customers require" and simplifying the organisation, alongside a push into AI products. But for the engineering cuts, the employer's own explanation is that AI-reworked workflows need fewer people, the same case Elastic and Snap made.