AT&T, which already shed greater than half of its workforce over the previous decade, says it is going to proceed shedding workers because it gears up for the AI period. The telecommunications large can also be eliminating its old-school landline service and utilizing synthetic intelligence to automate some inner processes. All this downsizing is leading to tangible advantages, together with a substantial lower in electrical energy utilization, AT&T chief know-how officer Jeremy Legg tells WIRED.
“We’re not going to have the identical headcount in 5 years as we do at the moment,” Legg says, including that evaluating its staffing ranges to that of friends performs a job in its decisionmaking. In keeping with public monetary disclosures, AT&T generated much less income per worker final 12 months than its rivals Verizon and T-Cell, each of which have let go of employees in current months.
If AT&T continues slicing jobs on the identical tempo as final 12 months, when it shed 8,000 people, its workforce might strategy 85,000 staff by 2030. An individual acquainted with the matter, who was not licensed to talk publicly, described that quantity as the corporate’s goal. AT&T referred to as the determine inaccurate. Within the first half of 2026, the telecom large reduce some 2,100 jobs.
By the tip of the last decade, AT&T needs to be seen as a “dramatically completely different” firm with a “incredible” fiber web service and “kickass wi-fi community,” AT&T CEO John Stankey mentioned on the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Know-how Convention in San Francisco earlier this month.
AT&T’s transition offers a window into how legacy corporations are attempting to rebuild their operations as synthetic intelligence instruments change into more and more succesful. AT&T has been round for 150 years, and it nonetheless performs a significant function within the international financial system. Legg says it handles about 15 p.c of the world’s web visitors, and the corporate employed practically 131,000 folks as of June. The query is whether or not it could actually drive innovation whereas additionally shedding prices and attempting to maintain up with the likes of Elon Musk.
A few of AT&T’s decades-old methods nonetheless run on paper data and require employees to do issues manually, akin to when a buyer needs to disconnect their cellphone service. A few of that work is now being automated.
The telecom large is utilizing AI methods for customer support, to assist establish areas for brand new cellular phone towers, and to search out upkeep points on current ones. A generative AI system AT&T calls GeoModeler adjusts community settings on the fly throughout uncommon occasions like excessive climate. And like many corporations, AT&T is utilizing AI to generate software program code and assist handle service points.
Beginning subsequent 12 months, AT&T will substitute bodily {hardware} at 1000’s of central hubs with cloud software program from Israeli startup DriveNets, by which AT&T is an investor. The change will permit technicians to make changes remotely, akin to when a buyer requests sooner web. As extra duties are automated, quite a lot of center administration and junior developer roles are anticipated to vanish.
Jobs within the US telecommunications business have been declining for 25 years, in line with government data, however the potential for AI to speed up the pattern and increase income has captivated buyers.
On the identical time, AT&T is decommissioning the energy-intensive copper wire community that has lengthy powered its landline phone and DSL web networks. Dropping these providers typically requires approval from state and federal regulators, since rural areas might not have entry to alternate options, and the corporate’s plans have been met by local protests in some communities. However by the tip of this 12 months, AT&T expects it would now not have to supply copper in additional than 85 p.c of its current footprint.