Mercado Livre fired 119 employees in Latin America in recent days, 38 of them in Brazil. The mass dismissal, according to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, was motivated by the development of artificial intelligence tools.
According to Folha, most of the layoffs took place last Thursday (8). The newspaper also found that the team most affected was the user experience (UX), where there was an increase in the use of AI technologies, and that the employees laid off were those who produced texts, the “UX writers”.
To the InfomoneyMercado Livre confirmed the layoffs in Brazil, but not that people had been replaced by artificial intelligence and called the process a “one-off measure”.
“At Mercado Livre, we are evolving the User Experience (UX) profiles to more effectively integrate the Design and Content areas. This transformation seeks to foster more agile and collaborative structures, taking advantage of technology to continue improving the experience of our users”, says the note. “As part of this process, 38 people left the company in Brazil. This is a specific measure that does not change our growth strategy in the country or in the region”, completes the text sent to Infomoney by the press office.
Mercado Livre currently has 55 thousand employees in Brazil and 120 thousand in Latin America. According to the company, 42 thousand new jobs were created in the region in 2025.
Folha interviewed three Mercado Livre employees on condition of anonymity and they reported that people who were not fired will have access to new AI resources and that designers must incorporate the writing function, with the help of technology.
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Employees also said that the company, which has been using AI for years, started to require workers in 2025 to document their use of the technology, with metrics monitored by managers.
When he left his post as CEO of Mercado Livre last year, Marcos Galperin, the company’s founder, said he would dedicate himself to projects involving artificial intelligence.
