Companies are loudly calling themselves 'AI-first.' Are they helping or hurting their own brands?

"Last week, the online freelance marketplace Fiverr generated a flood of headlines after it announced an effort to reimagine itself as an " AI-first" company. According to a published memo from CEO Micha Kaufman, the new-and-improved Fiverr will be "leaner, faster," with modern AI infrastructure, greater productivity, and "far fewer management layers." The change will also require a "painful reset," Kaufman added, that will see 250 people lose their jobs."

"If you find yourself unsure, you're not alone. Despite endless discussions around AI at many workplaces today, close to half of professionals with some knowledge of top company strategies have never even heard the term "AI-first," according to a new survey conducted exclusively for Fast Company. And many who do hear it are likely to be skeptical. Although around a third of the survey's respondents said they'd perceive an AI-first company to be more innovative and efficient,"

Fiverr announced an AI-first shift promising modern AI infrastructure, greater productivity, fewer management layers, and a "painful reset" that includes 250 job cuts. Several other tech companies, including Duolingo, Klarna, and Shopify, have publicly accelerated AI initiatives and used urgent, existential framing. Many professionals remain unfamiliar with the phrase AI-first, and opinions split between seeing it as a path to innovation and efficiency or as a change that could make companies feel less human and degrade customer experience. A FutureBrand study surveyed more than 3,000 informed professionals and surfaced additional concerns about job losses, privacy, and operational sloppiness.

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