CEO: Neural net tech 'flattens our hiring curve, helps us innovate'

CrowdStrike – the Texas antivirus slinger famous for crashing millions of Windows machines last year – plans to cut five percent of its staff, or about 500 workers, in pursuit of "greater efficiencies," according to CEO and co-founder George Kurtz.

In a letter to staff, included in a regulatory filing this week, the big cheese explained the change as an effort to move faster and operate more efficiently, citing the alleged transformational power of AI.

"We’re operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs," Kurtz wrote. "To lead at scale, with nearly 10,000 CrowdStrikers and a clear path to $10 billion in [annual revenue], we are evolving how we operate."

That evolution, he explained, will be driven by AI.

... with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs ... We utilize AI, which could expose us to liability ...