Domestic Spanish course platform launches, which received a hundred million investment over a year ago mass dismissal process do without 89 employeesalmost half of the staff.
These layoffs are in addition to the company’s layoffs last year: 70, of which 150 were in Spain, according to workers’ data. These mass layoffs were made without an employment regulation file, so About thirty people affected came together in a single lawsuit to demand its annulment. The workers reached an agreement with the company in the settlement act.
At that time, Domestica had around 800 employees worldwide. 369 of them were in Spain, according to calculations at the end of 2021. Domestica uses two different companies to rent in our country: DMTSK and Estudios de Grabación Digital. The current ERE only affects the first, which currently employs around 200 people.
In addition to the initial layoffs, Domestica has in recent months committed itself to closing operations in third markets: first in Europe and then in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. “They went from being unicorns and being in many countries to just staying in Spain”Sources familiar with the situation explain to this newspaper. Once you get the hundred million, while the online education “boom” from the pandemic is still hot, Domestica is valued at $1.3 billion and entered the Spanish club of unicorns, companies valued at more than a billion.
ERE comes, therefore, cutting and thinning of the workforce for over a year. On the other hand, the demand for online courses slowing post-COVID and the funding tap for tech startups were closed due to the rise in interest rates and general economic uncertainty. Specifically and according to data from Crunchbase, in the first quarter of 2023 investment fell 53% worldwide.
And yet ERE’s fault fell on them artificial intelligence.
How much does ChatGPT have to do with it?
Several media outlets have seen Domestictika’s he will fire half of his team instead ChatGPT, AI tool that, among other things, writes essays at a good syntactic level. The news was interpreted as one of the first destructions that artificial intelligence will cause in the business world.
As representatives of workers at La Vanguardia explained, 22 of the affected workers are now interpreters whose duties will be carried out by an automated interpreter, while the other 9 are content creation, they will lose their jobs because texts after robot. Hence, ChatGPT will replace one-tenth of the most laid-off workers.
“The company’s repeated words: efficiency and versatility“, they explain the sources of the negotiation to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA of the Prensa Ibérica group. “Efficiency reduces staff at all costs. Quality is not your concern. And there is something strange about ChatGPT that just doesn’t suit us. The new head of marketing, Daniel Villegas, creates texts with ChatGPT and asks “copywriters” to edit and upload them to the web. The entire content team during the first wave of layoffs.
At that time—April 2022—ChatGPT was neither publicly available nor artificial intelligence applications in vogue. and Domestic already laying off dozens of workers. content experts. “There was a very large team of 30-40 people and they were up to 95% full. Much less content has been coming out since then, and when the new boss arrived at the end of the year, they started talking about a much more comprehensive content strategy,” continues the workers’ representation.
The launch of the AI chat was in November of last year, coinciding with the arrival of this new head of marketing. “ChatGPT wasn’t the cause, it was part of the effect. More people can now upload and continue to extract content,” add workers.
When the company’s CEO, Julio Cotorruelo, was asked this question, “the company has never done it before. There is no linking explanation. YOU with artificial intelligence. We really don’t know where this is coming from.” And according to sources familiar with what’s going on at the company, the CEO pictured Domestictika’s situation in a video call two months ago. “With a picture of the Titanic and the iceberg”.
“It has nothing to do with artificial intelligence,” these sources add. “It has to do with the company’s situation.”
In addition to the uncertainty created by the one-year layoffs and market closures, workers are restless as the production schedule — Domestica works as a course maker — ends in July. “We see that nothing assigned as of july. And it’s a very large, very organized thing that’s normally scheduled for nine months,” says one employee. Also, according to sources familiar with the situation, the company paralyzed the ongoing shooting.
There is suspicion among employees and ex-employees: Domestica ready for sale. Consultants point to Skillshare, which has direct competition in the United States, as a possible buyer, a rumor that CEO Cotorruelo vehemently denied. “Domestika is not only here, but also He didn’t even initiate the most distant conversation with anyone to be had.”says.
In an interview with this newspaper in July, Cotorruelo noted that the funds—that is, his investors—“before it grew and now profitability dominated,” meaning that with silver the company must be profitable. (earn more or spend less) Be profitable to attract reinvestment Or to sustain yourself. Its global result is inaccessible as it has subsidiaries in several countries.
Will Domestica fire 89 people for replacing ChatGPT? No, he will drop them as he needs to reduce it. The question is whether ChatGPT will interrupt in its absence. The answer lies in the development of events: Domestica did the same without this AI application.