AT&T plans to keep cutting staff as it automates its network, with a workforce that could approach 85,000 employees by 2030 from nearly 131,000 as of June. The 150-year-old telecom cut 2,100 jobs in the first half of 2026 after letting go of 8,000 workers last year, and has already shed more than half its workforce over the past decade. Chief technology officer Jeremy Legg told Wired the company is measuring itself against Verizon and T-Mobile, both of which generate more revenue per employee than AT&T did last year.
The staffing target reflects a broader rebuild around AI automation and the retirement of the copper wire network that has powered AT&T's landline and DSL services for generations. AT&T disputed the 85,000 figure as inaccurate, but a person familiar with the matter described it as an internal target. Jobs in the US telecommunications industry have been declining for 25 years, and AI is now accelerating the trend.
“We're not going to have the same headcount in five years as we do today.”— Jeremy Legg, AT&T Chief Technology Officer
AT&T is deploying generative AI across customer service, cell-tower siting, and network maintenance. A system called GeoModeler adjusts network settings on the fly during extreme weather events, and the company is using AI to generate code and manage service tickets. Middle management and junior developer roles are the most exposed to the shift, according to the company.
Key facts
- 01AT&T cut 2,100 jobs in the first half of 2026 after shedding 8,000 in 2025, and could reach roughly 85,000 employees by 2030.
- 02The company has shed more than half its workforce over the past decade and employed nearly 131,000 people as of June 2026.
- 03AT&T expects to retire copper across more than 85% of its existing footprint by the end of 2026.
- 04Total energy consumption fell 13.1% from 2020 through the end of 2025, with 660,000 megawatt-hours saved since 2024.
- 05Starting in 2027, AT&T will replace physical hardware at thousands of central hubs with cloud software from Israeli startup DriveNets.
Starting next year, AT&T will replace physical hardware at thousands of central hubs with cloud software from Israeli startup DriveNets, in which AT&T is an investor. Technicians will make adjustments remotely — including provisioning faster internet for a customer — instead of driving to a hub. Some legacy systems still run on paper records and require manual work, such as processing a phone disconnection, and much of that is now being automated.
The copper retirement is the other half of the story. AT&T expects that by the end of 2026 it will no longer have to offer copper across more than 85% of its existing footprint, pending state and federal approvals in rural areas where alternatives are limited.
“What it allows us to do is to retire underutilized infrastructure, and infrastructure that is absorbing a lot of power and personnel attention.”— Pascal Desroches, AT&T Chief Financial Officer
The financial and energy payoff is already visible. Total energy consumption fell 13.1% from 2020 through the end of 2025, and shifting away from copper has saved 660,000 megawatt-hours of electricity since 2024 — enough to power roughly 65,000 homes. AT&T declined to share exact figures on current electricity usage.
CEO John Stankey wants AT&T to be seen as a "dramatically different" company by decade's end, built around fiber internet and wireless. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, Stankey described the company's current copper inventory in unusually blunt terms.
The strategic pivot puts AT&T on a collision course with Elon Musk's SpaceX and its Starlink satellite service, which Wall Street analysts have flagged as a threat to terrestrial telecoms. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T are cooperating on satellite integration and may work with a variety of providers, potentially including Starlink. Legg argues fiber will remain cheaper than satellite and that satellite coverage won't work everywhere, leaving AT&T positioned to sell customers whichever option fits.
Internally, the transition is not landing evenly. AT&T reinstated a five-day office mandate as pandemic restrictions eased, which Legg says produced some natural attrition but was necessary because the culture was deteriorating. The company has spent heavily on office amenities in Dallas, Atlanta, and Seattle, including a summer childcare program and on-site mental health therapists. Legg himself points to the coffee machine outside his office as evidence of the investment.
AT&T says it will keep hiring even as its overall workforce shrinks — for different roles. The company expects to need people to develop and govern AI agents, oversee automated processes, and maintain fiber lines. That mix is closer to a software operator than a legacy carrier.
The AT&T playbook is now the template for what AI does to a century-old workforce: the top-line number shrinks, energy costs fall, and the remaining headcount tilts toward software and oversight rather than field technicians and back-office clerks. For investors, the appeal is straightforward — the same 15% share of global internet traffic, run by a leaner organization with lower power bills. For the towns losing their copper landlines and the mid-career engineers watching their roles get consolidated into a DriveNets dashboard, the transition looks less like modernization and more like the end of an industry that once employed millions.
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