Wix.com lays off 20% of workforce, citing AI shift and surging Israeli Shekel

The AI wave that promised leaner companies and higher productivity is now hitting payrolls.

Wix, the Israeli website-building company known for helping small businesses create and run websites, said Thursday it will cut roughly 20% of its workforce, affecting about 1,000 employees. Wix.com founder and CEO Avishai Abrahami confirmed the layoffs in a letter sent to employees on Thursday.

“We are reducing the Wix team size by roughly 20%,” Abrahami wrote, confirming earlier reports of mass layoffs and marking the company’s biggest restructuring effort to date.

Abrahami pointed to two forces pushing the company into difficult decisions: the sharp rise of Israel’s currency against the U.S. dollar and the growing role of AI inside the company.

The layoffs arrive during a rough stretch for the broader tech sector, where companies are under pressure to cut costs, simplify operations, and adapt to AI systems that can replace parts of traditional workflows. Wix, which trades on Nasdaq, has fallen nearly 50% so far in 2026.

Wix Lays Off 1,000 Workers as AI Reshapes Operations and Shekel Hits 33-Year High

In a post on X, Abrahami said the company’s financial structure has become harder to sustain as the Israeli shekel has climbed close to a 33-year high against the dollar.

“As the majority of our teams are Israel-based, a very meaningful portion of our costs are shekel-denominated, while our revenue is largely dollar-denominated,” Abrahami wrote. “This creates a structural pressure on our ability to operate at our current scale. It is a reality that directly shapes what is sustainable for our company.”

The shekel has appreciated nearly 30% against the dollar over the past year, creating fresh pressure on Israeli exporters and tech firms that generate much of their revenue in U.S. dollars but pay employees locally in shekels.

AI played a second role in the cuts, according to Abrahami. He described the technology as both an opportunity and a reason the company no longer needs as many layers or workers as before.

“It could help companies’ build things the previous generation literally could not have imagined,” he said, adding that AI is changing how teams are structured and how products are built.

Wix ended the first quarter with 5,277 employees. The latest cuts mark one of the company’s biggest workforce reductions in years and add to a growing list of tech firms trimming staff as AI reshapes software development, customer support, design, and operations.

The layoffs sparked concern inside Israel’s business community, where industry groups have warned that the strengthening shekel is becoming a serious problem for local companies competing globally.

Israel’s Manufacturers’ Association said the Wix cuts reflect deeper economic stress and criticized policymakers for failing to respond faster to the currency surge.

“The economy’s reaction to the dollar’s crash is faster and more severe than we thought,” the association said in a statement, according to Reuters. “Unfortunately, in the absence of any government action, industry and high-tech will make decisions solely on an economic basis.”

The announcement lands at a moment when AI-driven workforce reductions are shifting from isolated cases to a broader trend across the tech industry. Companies once praised for aggressive hiring during the software boom are now restructuring around smaller teams, automation, and AI-assisted workflows.

For Wix, the message was blunt: AI is helping the company build faster with fewer people, right as currency pressures are squeezing profits from another side.