HP to sack up to six thousand staff under AI adoption plan, fresh round of cost-cutting

Summary

HP Inc has announced a new cost‑cutting programme that could result in 4,000–6,000 job losses as the company accelerates AI adoption to streamline operations. CEO Enrique Lores unveiled the initiative alongside Q4 results, saying the firm has a “line of sight” to roughly $1 billion of gross run‑rate savings over three years by applying AI across product development, customer service and operational processes.

The announcement follows HP’s recent “future‑ready” savings programme (2022–2025) that exceeded its $1.4 billion target. HP also reported strong PC sales in Q4 — personal systems revenue reached $10.8 billion, up 8% year‑on‑year — while printing revenue slipped and full‑year net earnings fell despite a 4.2% rise in revenue to $55.3 billion.

Key Points

HP plans to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 roles as part of a company‑wide AI enablement programme.
The firm expects to drive approximately $1 billion of gross run‑rate savings over three years across R&D, customer service and operations.
HP cites internal gains from AI PCs and curated applications, claiming ~16% productivity improvements in some teams.
Q4 personal systems revenue rose to $10.8bn (up 8% YoY); printing revenue declined 4% to $4.3bn.
Full‑year revenue was $55.3bn (up 4.2% YoY), but net earnings and EPS declined.
HP warned that accelerating memory price rises (memory = 15–18% of a typical PC’s cost) will pressure margins in H2 of the next financial year.
Planned responses to memory cost pressure include qualifying lower‑cost suppliers, redesigning product lines for reduced memory configurations and selective price increases.

Context and Relevance

This move sits squarely in the current industry trend of using AI not only to add features but to cut costs and automate roles. For hardware vendors already operating thin margins, swapping labour for AI and redesigning product specs to manage component inflation (here, DRAM) is a two‑front response: short‑term margin defence and medium‑term efficiency gains.

For readers tracking labour impact, enterprise AI adoption, or supply‑chain inflation (memory markets), HP’s plan is a notable example of how big PC vendors are balancing growth, profitability and component shortages.

Why should I read this?

Because it’s immediate and messy: big tech firm says it’s axing thousands and blaming AI + memory costs. If you care about jobs, PC pricing, or how AI is being sold internally as a productivity miracle — this explains where HP is placing its bets and what it might mean for customers and staff.

Author style

Punchy: this is a significant corporate pivot — HP is turning AI into a major cost lever. Read the detail if you want to understand how a mainstream hardware vendor plans to protect margins and where the pain points (jobs, memory costs, product redesign) will fall.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/11/26/hp_inc_q4_2025/