“They ruthlessly cut costs, R&D, and employee benefits and then replace existing employees with overseas contractors. Innovation and growth take a back seat to sheer profitability.”
This is the operating manual that explains why IgniteTech’s much-publicized AI purge feels more like a familiar private-equity play. CEO Eric Vaughan’s account to Fortune, that IgniteTech “replaced nearly 80%” of its staff after an internal AI mandate and that changing minds “was harder than adding skills”, reads like the CEO’s justification for a radical reset. But Fortune’s language is vague: the story says employees were “replaced,” and Vaughan declined to disclose a specific number, which leaves open whether people were fired, converted to contractors, or outsourced.
IgniteTech Didn’t Fire 80% for AI. It Fired Them for Profits
Mukundan Sivaraj
