Reduce costs and increase efficiency. The speech is old, but the dismissal is new. This time, the Stone announced a wave of cuts to its staff – and according to sources, the increased use of artificial intelligence is one of the triggers for this.
According to reports from former employees on social media, around 370 people were dismissed. According to sources, in reports on social media, the company claimed that the layoffs are part of a “restructuring” plan for the business.
Wanted by Startupsa Stone confirmed the dismissals. “The company made a specific adjustment to its structure as part of the ongoing process of simplification and efficiency gains. The operation continues normally, with no impact on customers or partners”, said the company, in a short note sent to the report.
Looking at the general scenario, the layoff represents a 3% share of the general workforce that the Stone currently owns – something around 11 thousand, with the numbers updated after the sale of the Linx for the Totvs last year.
However, the Startups found out from former employees that most of the layoffs were most felt on the fintech technology front, which has more than 2 thousand employees. According to these former employees, around 20% of this division was impacted.
According to sources within the company, a call was held with employees on Tuesday afternoon (10) to explain the reasons for the wave of layoffs. According to reports, the company is going through a period of cost reduction, reducing teams and areas and ending products that are not profitable for the operation. “They also said it was an opportunity to use more AI,” said one of the sources.
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Asked about former employees’ comments on whether the dismissal would be to increase efficiency per employee with the use of AI, the Stone did not speak out.
The cuts in Stone comes on the heels of a tepid 2025 for fintech. The company had a net profit below expectations, growing 12% in the year, with revenue of R$3.7 billion – growth of 13%. In fact, to improve its margins, the company got rid of one of its biggest assets, selling the Linx for the Totvs in the middle of last year for R$3.05 billion.
Asked about its profitability and with its shares falling, the Stone It even changed leadership at the beginning of the year, with CEO Pedro Zinner becoming the company’s chairman and CFO Mateus Scherer taking over as CEO.
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“The change of CEO and the positioning in the March earnings call have already shown that to deliver the promised profit for 2026 and 2027, we only need to cut the meat,” said a former employee of the company who was affected.
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