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Patreon Cuts 20% Of Staff As It Restructures For An AI-Driven Market

Patreon is cutting 20% of its workforce, eliminating 93 jobs as the creator platform restructures its operations to adapt to a rapidly changing technology landscape.

A Painful But Deliberate Reset

In a memo to employees, CEO Jack Conte said Patreon remains financially healthy but needs to simplify its organization and reduce costs to support long-term growth.

“The pace of change has never been more intense,” Conte wrote, adding that AI has fundamentally reshaped the technology industry. He stressed, however, that the layoffs were not driven by a belief that artificial intelligence can replace employees.

AI Is Reshaping The Business

While AI is transforming how companies build products, communicate and operate, Conte argued that it cannot replace the creativity, judgment or craftsmanship of Patreon employees.

“To be clear about the impact of AI on today’s decision: we are not making the above changes because we believe AI replaces humans,” he wrote.

Human creativity and human connection remain at the center of Patreon’s strategy, Conte said, describing them as core to both the platform and its long-term vision.

A Flatter Organization

Alongside the layoffs, Patreon is reducing management layers and reorganizing teams around its highest-priority initiatives.

Employees affected by the cuts will receive at least 16 weeks of severance, plus one additional week for every year of service. Healthcare coverage will continue through the end of the year, and each departing employee will receive a $1,500 stipend to replace a company laptop.

AI Scraping Dispute

The restructuring comes a week after Patreon announced a partnership with Cloudflare to block AI bots from scraping creator content to train AI models without permission.

According to the company, increasingly sophisticated scraping techniques prompted the move, highlighting growing tensions between AI developers and creators over the use of copyrighted content.

Largest Layoffs Since 2022

This marks Patreon’s largest workforce reduction since 2022, when it laid off 17% of employees and closed offices in Berlin and Dublin.

Only 1% Of Cyprus Farms Use Precision Farming Technologies

Cyprus remains one of the European Union’s least digitised agricultural economies, with just 1% of farms using precision farming technologies in 2023, according to Eurostat.

The findings come as the EU continues to encourage the adoption of digital tools aimed at improving agricultural productivity, efficiency and sustainability.

Internet Access Expands, But Digital Uptake Lags

Internet access has improved across the bloc, although adoption remains uneven. Eurostat found that 43% of EU farms had internet access in 2023, with northern and central European countries leading the way.

Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Austria all reported internet access rates above 90%.

Greater connectivity, however, has not translated into widespread digital adoption. Farm management information systems, which help farmers manage day-to-day operations, were used by only about 11% of EU farms. France was a notable exception, with around 60% of farms using the technology.

Precision Farming Concentrated In Larger Operations

Robotics adoption also remained relatively limited, with only about 7% of EU farms using robotic technologies. Overall, around 18% of farms with utilised agricultural area employed at least one precision farming technology or practice in 2023.

These included robotics for plant protection, band spraying, variable-rate application, precision crop monitoring and soil analysis. Despite representing fewer than one in five farms, these holdings accounted for around 44% of the EU’s utilised agricultural area.

The figures suggest that precision farming remains concentrated among larger agricultural businesses, where investment in digital technologies is typically easier to support.

Cyprus Lags Behind EU Leaders

Luxembourg, Finland and Estonia recorded the highest shares of utilised agricultural area managed by farms using precision farming technologies, each exceeding 75%.

At the other end of the ranking, Cyprus recorded just 1%, while Greece and Romania reported between 10% and 15%. The results indicate that Cyprus remains at an early stage of digital adoption in agriculture, even as precision farming becomes more widespread across parts of the European Union.

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