Dell is reportedly laying off roughly 10% of its staff, more than 12,000 employees, as the company tries to become leaner and outpace the market.

Dell has already begin notifying employees that they are being laid off. The company told The Register the layoffs are part of its strategy to become a leaner company.

“Through a reorganization of our go-to-market teams and an ongoing series of actions, we are becoming a leaner company. We are combining teams and prioritizing where we invest across the company. We continually evolve our business, so we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners,” Dell told the outlet via email.

Interestingly, at least one employee said the layoffs were a long time coming, with the company plagued by redundancy:

Dell has known for over five years that they’ve had a redundancy problem with sales personnel. When I was there something like 20 reps were paid on a single deal. Many of which had nothing to do with that deal, so all of us knew something like this happened sooner or later. It’s just a shame they did it all at once, so now the open job market is flooded with people with similar resumes, making it more difficult for folks to stay in tech.

Still another employee said Dell was focusing on getting rid of older employees with stock options and other long-term incentives (LTI):

Look out if you are a AE4 or higher. The plan is to keep hiring children and get the experienced (read: higher paid) people out.

Gotta’ love the NGSA’s that were assistant managers at Bed Bath and Beyond a year ago and now selling enterprise solutions. Good luck kiddos.

Multiple employees confirmed the loss of their LTI, such as this post:

I received LTI almost every year for past 8 years… getting laid off with 3 years of LTI is a kick in the pants. They essentially paid for many layoffs using employees own LTI. What a sham.

Financial firms have increasingly been warning the rush to AI could be the next tech bubble. Goldman Sachs has warned the technology is “never going to be cost-efficient.” Similarly, Elliot Management says AI has “few real uses.”

Intel just announced that it is cutting some 15,000 jobs. With Dell cutting a similar number, the bubble could be on the verge of bursting.