(NewsNation) — Fiverr, the multinational online freelance marketplace, has announced plans to critically downsize its staff in pursuit of becoming an “AI-first company,” Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman announced in a company update, which includes a letter to employees.

Kaufman shared the letter with his staff on Sept. 15, announcing that the company is laying off 250 employees as part of a “painful reset.” The number of employees accounts for nearly 30% of its workforce, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The goal of the downsizing is to make the platform "leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers," according to Kaufman.

Kaufman added that the layoffs will not harm freelancer

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