Xsolla Fires 150 Employees Using Big Data and AI Analysis

In August 2021, the payment services company Xsolla initiated a mass layoff of 150 employees at its Perm, Russia office. The primary driver for this decision was a shift in the company’s growth trajectory, as leadership cited a slowdown from previous 40% growth rates. The company utilized an automated internal assessment system, leveraging big data and artificial intelligence to monitor employee activity across various digital platforms, including Jira, Confluence, Gmail, and internal chat applications.

The termination process drew significant industry controversy due to the methodology and communication style employed by CEO Aleksandr Agapitov. Employees were notified via a mass email that categorized them as unengaged or unproductive based on their digital activity logs rather than specific project outcomes. The CEO’s correspondence explicitly linked these terminations to a lack of presence in digital workspaces during remote work hours, a move that sparked widespread criticism regarding workplace surveillance and the ethics of using AI-driven metrics for performance management.

Industry experts and human resources professionals criticized the reliance on network activity as a proxy for productivity, arguing that such metrics fail to capture actual work output and may violate labor standards. While Xsolla provided severance packages and assistance from external HR agencies to help the affected staff transition to new roles, the incident highlighted growing tensions regarding the implementation of algorithmic management in the technology sector. The event serves as a notable case study on the risks associated with replacing traditional performance evaluation with automated, data-centric monitoring systems.