Tech giant HP is planning to cut up to 10 per cent of its global workforce as it looks to ramp up its use of artificial intelligence across its operations.

The computer and printer maker last week announced a “company-wide initiative” which will see between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs cut over the next three years, as it looks to “drive customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity through artificial intelligence adoption and enablement”.

The cuts represent up to 10 per cent of HP’s workforce of about 56,000 people.

“As we look ahead, we see a significant opportunity to embed AI into HP to accelerate product innovation, improve customer satisfaction and boost productivity,” HP CEO and president Enrique Lores said.

The job cuts and increased usage of AI is forecast to save the company $1.5 billion ($US1 billion) by the end of 2028, but will cost it $994 million ($US650 million) in labour and non-labour costs associated with the restructuring.

Accelerating AI use

The announcement came as part of HP’s 2025 fiscal year and fourth quarter financial results, which saw the company unveil better-than-expected revenue for the last quarter, but worse than forecast profit outlook for the coming year.

HP reported fourth quarter revenue of $22.3 billion ($US14.6 billion), up 4.2 per cent from the previous quarter, and net revenue of $84.6 billion ($US55.3 billion) for the 2025 financial year, an increase of more than 3 per cent from the previous year.

“HP’s strategy to lead the future of work continues to deliver strong performance, marked by our sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth,” Lores said.

“As we accelerate innovation across AI-powered devices to drive productivity, security and flexibility for our customers, our focus for FY26 is on disciplined execution.

“Looking forward, we are taking decisive actions to mitigate recent cost headwinds and are investing in AI-enabled initiatives to accelerate product innovation, improve customer satisfaction and boost productivity.”

Fears over AI job losses grow

The AI-inspired job cuts were announced in the same week that research by the National Foundation for Educational Research found up to 3 million low-skill jobs could be lost to automation and AI in the United Kingdom by 2035.

Separate research by MIT estimated that AI could replace up to 12 per cent of the total US jobs market, meaning one in nine workers could be displaced.

A number of large tech firms have announced job cuts along with a renewed focus on AI in its operations in recent months.

Reports have also found that Australian jobs are vulnerable to automation.

A report by government body Jobs and Skills Australia earlier this year found that data entry, record-keeping, accounting and communications roles are among the most vulnerable to automation from generative AI.

The report found that the technology has the “greater capacity to augment work than automate” it, but that some roles are more exposed than others.

Amazon announced recently that it would be cutting 14,000 jobs and doubling down on AI, just months after its CEO, Andy Jassy, said that the introduction of AI across the company would mean that it would “need fewer people” in some roles, with its corporate workforce shrinking.

Research has found that some workers are now even gatekeeping their own knowledge out of fear that AI will replace them, while others are worried their organisation will lose valuable knowledge when other staff leave.

This form of “AI psychological warfare” is becoming more common in the workforce, the research found.