Visa announced on July 28, 2026, that it will cut approximately 2,600 employees, or roughly 7 percent of its global workforce, as CEO Ryan McInerney moves to streamline the payments giant and invest more in growth areas, according to a memo confirmed by CNBC.
The company plans to eliminate roughly 2,600 positions, mostly in its technology and product operations. Impacted employees began receiving notifications on July 29, 2026, with details on transition assistance.
“To capture the opportunities ahead and best position Visa to lead this transformation, we must continue evolving how we work,” McInerney wrote in the memo. “AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape the way work gets done at Visa.” While AI played a significant role in the layoffs, it was not the sole driver, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Visa intends to reinvest the savings from the cuts into what it views as growth areas, including its emphasis on affluent customers, cross-border activity, business payments, stablecoins, and geographic expansion. The company had approximately 34,100 employees at the end of its last fiscal year.
Visa’s cuts reflect a broader wave of AI-driven workforce reductions sweeping across the technology and financial sectors. Employee layoffs have accelerated in 2026 as AI reshapes workforce across 40+ companies, with more than 170,000 tech industry workers laid off through late July 2026, according to TrueUp’s layoff tracking data. Oracle has been the single largest contributor to 2026 layoffs, having cut 21,000 jobs—roughly 13 percent of its workforce—over the past year. In its annual financial disclosure filed on June 23, Oracle noted that “the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.”
The scale of AI-attributed job cuts has grown significantly throughout 2026. In May alone, AI was blamed for 40 percent of tech industry job cuts, up from 7 percent in January, according to Computerworld’s analysis. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs in July, citing restructuring efforts, while companies including Cloudflare, Intuit, PayPal, and Meta have all announced major workforce reductions tied to AI investments and automation.
The layoffs come as companies across the financial and technology sectors increasingly use artificial intelligence to automate technical work like software development while seeking to reduce costs after years of rapid hiring. Visa had announced new AI, stablecoin, and token capabilities at its Payments Forum in June 2026, positioning itself for what the company described as an AI-first era in commerce. The payments giant is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on July 29, 2026.
Sources
- CNBC — Confirmed CEO Ryan McInerney’s memo announcing the 2,600 job cuts and provided context on Visa’s reinvestment strategy
- Yahoo Tech — Comprehensive 2026 tech layoffs tracker documenting 170,000+ industry-wide cuts, Oracle’s role as largest contributor, and AI as primary driver
- Computerworld — Reported that AI accounted for 40% of May 2026 tech job cuts, up from 7% in January
