AI has been cited as the main culprit behind large-scale job cuts in the fintech industry this year, but profitability pressure, cost-cutting and the aftermath of past overhiring may be bigger factors, a commentary said.

A commentary by Murad Salikhov (무라드 살리호프), a partner at Schwarzwald Capital, published by IT outlet TechRadar on Aug. 31, said about 10,000 jobs have disappeared in the global fintech industry this year. PayPal is pushing to cut its workforce by about 20 percent, and Block reduced its staff to fewer than 6,000. Coinbase also cut about 14 percent of its total workforce in May.

Companies are linking such restructuring to a shift to AI. Deutsche Bank analysts called it "AI redundancy washing." The term means companies describe layoffs as if AI replaced workers, even when the real backdrop is worsening profitability or cost normalisation after a growth-first strategy, to frame restructuring as strategic innovation. The commentary also cited a survey in which about 60 percent of U.S. hiring managers said they emphasise AI's role when explaining layoffs.

The issue is whether AI has yet produced clear results strong enough to justify large-scale workforce replacement. A survey of 350 executives at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue found that 80 percent of organisations testing AI and automation technologies reduced headcount, but larger job cuts did not show a tendency to raise return on investment.

Company-wide adoption of AI is also at an early stage. In McKinsey's 2025 global survey, 88 percent of respondents said they use AI in at least one task, but only about one-third of companies had begun scaling it across the organisation. The share reporting an impact on company-level earnings before interest and taxes was 39 percent.

Salikhov said fintech companies are currently focusing AI on internal work automation and cost-cutting rather than creating new financial services. But cutting headcount alone makes it difficult to build a lasting competitive edge. The analysis said the outcome of the AI race depends less on how many people are cut than on how many products and services can be created that were previously impossible.