Pendo lays off 10% of workforce as CEO of Raleigh software firm embraces AI tools
Raleigh software analytics provider Pendo eliminated around 90 positions, or about 10% of its workforce, Tuesday in a step company CEO Todd Olson attributed to rapid adoption of artificial intelligence tools.
“We’ve been in a process of ‘refounding’ Pendo over the past six months as the technology landscape has changed dramatically,” he wrote in an email the company shared with The News & Observer.
Olson said the layoffs impacted roughly 30 workers in Raleigh, where Pendo occupies the top floors of a tower that bears its name. The company formed in 2013 to offer software that helps businesses measure their own software. It has since been among the Triangle’s most successful startups, with a valuation above $1 billion and multiple global offices.
As clients have implemented more AI tools, Olson said his company has had to adjust. Pendo last month announced an autonomous agent called Novus that can access code and “automatically instrument, analyze and improve your product.” And in December, Pendo entered an agreement that allows users to access Pendo product analytics through Anthropic’s viral AI platform Claude.
The Triangle Business Journal first reported the Pendo layoffs on Tuesday.
“This is not any reflection of the strength of our business,” Olson wrote. “We have the biggest opportunity in Pendo history ahead of us. We are setting ourselves up to move at a faster speed to capitalize on it.”
Pendo also completed layoff rounds in 2022 and 2023. It is among several local software companies to employ fewer white-collar workers amid advancing AI tools, like Claude, OpenClaw, and ChatGPT.
This story was originally published April 7, 2026 at 3:26 PM.
