China’s infamous “996” work culture, working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week, has shifted to an even harsher reality as artificial intelligence tools rapidly replace programmers across the country’s technology sector. A new report highlights how layoffs in China’s tech industry have surged, with the nation’s five major internet giants cutting over 130,000 employees in the past 18 months alone. The scale of the workforce reduction underscores how quickly generative AI is reshaping the economics of software development in the world’s second-largest economy.
For years, securing a position at giants like Tencent, Alibaba, or ByteDance was viewed as a ticket to prosperity and middle-class status, even though the health toll was severe. Programmers frequently worked late nights, suffered immense stress, and faced intense internal competition. Now, many workers are finding that they no longer even have the opportunity to endure those grueling conditions, as AI coding agents achieve senior-level proficiency and drastically reduce the need for human developers.
The Multiplier Effect of AI Coding Tools
The primary driver of these mass layoffs is the extraordinary productivity multiplier provided by modern AI coding tools. According to the report, these tools now allow a single engineer to direct hundreds of AI systems simultaneously, completing month-long projects in a matter of weeks. “One AI agent can replace the work of 100 people,” the report noted, warning that vast office buildings in China’s tech hubs may stand nearly empty in the near future.
The economic logic for the tech giants is undeniable. “A company with 50 programmers now equals the productivity of 5,000, since each programmer directs hundreds of AI systems to write code daily,” the report detailed. As a result, the traditional pyramid structure of software engineering teams is collapsing. Companies increasingly require only a few chief engineers to guide AI decision-making, while the vast ranks of junior and mid-level programmers who previously executed the manual coding are being rendered obsolete. Mental labor, once thought irreplaceable, is proving more easily automated than physical labor.
Across-the-Board Downsizing
The layoffs have struck indiscriminately across the industry’s biggest players. Alibaba has reportedly reduced 30 to 40 percent of its workforce, while Baidu and JD.com have downsized by thousands. Even highly educated graduates from elite institutions like Peking University are facing layoffs after only a year in major firms. A 35-year-old programmer laid off by ByteDance noted the existential nature of the crisis: “What I need now isn’t a job, but a format of life to survive.”
The crisis is especially severe for older workers. The average age at some Chinese tech giants has dropped to 27.5, leaving workers over 35 with families increasingly excluded from the hiring pool . With mortgages, children’s education costs, and falling housing prices, many face financial ruin. Programmers who once earned hundreds of thousands of yuan annually built life plans around stable incomes, only to find themselves trapped by financial responsibilities as their skill sets are devalued.
Social and Economic Ramifications
The human toll of this rapid technological shift is immense. The hashtag “the life of an ordinary person” recently trended on Weibo, resonating deeply with workers feeling the pressure of the AI transition. It described ordinary people as “cows and horses in prosperous times, cannon fodder in chaotic times,” reflecting a growing sense of disillusionment among the tech workforce. Many middle-class families now risk sliding back into poverty as the AI-driven “optimization” of the workforce accelerates.
China currently has over 7 million software engineers, compared to 4.4 million in the US, making the potential scale of displacement significantly larger. While Chinese courts have previously ruled that AI adoption cannot legally justify firing workers, companies have found alternative methods to downsize, citing broader restructuring or performance metrics. As AI tools continue to improve, the tension between technological advancement and social stability will become one of the most pressing challenges for Beijing’s economic planners.
The scale of the displacement is forcing a broader rethinking of the social contract between China’s technology industry and its workforce. For decades, the implicit bargain was that workers would accept demanding conditions in exchange for high salaries and the prestige of working at a leading tech firm. That bargain is now breaking down on both sides simultaneously: the salaries are falling even for graduates of elite universities, while the prestige of a tech career is being eroded by the constant threat of AI-driven redundancy.
The government faces a difficult balancing act. On one hand, it has positioned AI development as a core national strategic priority and is actively encouraging companies to adopt AI tools to boost productivity and global competitiveness. On the other hand, the social instability created by mass unemployment among a highly educated, highly connected, and financially stretched workforce represents a significant political risk. How Beijing navigates this tension, whether through retraining programs, social safety net expansion, or new labor regulations specifically addressing AI-driven displacement, will be one of the defining domestic policy challenges of the coming decade.