Webflow Lays Off Workers in AI-Driven Restructuring, Employees Blindsided

San Francisco-based Webflow, a website-builder and hosting platform valued at $4 billion in 2022, announced sweeping layoffs Wednesday, with employees discovering they were cut after being abruptly locked out of Slack and company email accounts — in some cases before receiving any official notification. CEO Linda Tong framed the cuts as a necessary pivot, arguing that AI has fundamentally transformed how websites are built and that companies must move decisively to stay competitive.

The scale of the cuts remains officially undisclosed. Webflow employs between 500 and 1,000 people, and spokesperson Paul Chalker declined to confirm a number. However, at least one affected employee described the layoffs as larger than the company's last major round in 2024, when 8% of staff were let go — a round that was itself described by a former worker as 'a bloodbath.'

The manner of notification drew particular criticism. One former developer woke up to panicked texts from colleagues around 7:30 a.m., found himself locked out of Slack, and only received a termination email roughly 30 minutes later. A former software engineer learned she was laid off when her gym phone showed she'd been logged out of her work email — her personal notification arrived 15 minutes after that. Webflow defended the sequencing as a standard security measure to protect customer data, acknowledging that access was revoked 'a few minutes' before personal emails went out.

The cuts land amid a broader tech-sector shakeout. San Francisco and San Mateo counties shed 1,900 information-sector jobs between March and April alone, with Google, Meta, Pinterest, and Autodesk all announcing reductions this year, many explicitly citing AI. At least one departing Webflow employee pushed back sharply on the AI rationale, arguing that executives fundamentally misunderstand what the technology can and cannot do, and that they will eventually discover they haven't replaced skilled workers — only created operational chaos.