Ikea is upskilling 8,500 workers instead of laying them off

Name: Ikea is upskilling 8,500 workers instead of laying them off
Uploaded: 2026-07-30
Duration: 1 min 37 s
Description: Ikea rolled out a new AI bot to field thousands of customer service questions every day, but what became of the 8,500 employees who once handled those roles? Instead of cutting jobs, the home furnishing giant chose to retrain and redeploy its workforce. Fortune Leadership Editor Claire Zillman traveled to Malmö, Sweden, to take a closer look at Ikea’s upskilling strategy.

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Ikea rolled out a new AI bot to field thousands of customer service questions every day, but what became of the 8,500 employees who once handled those roles? Instead of cutting jobs, the home furnishing giant chose to retrain and redeploy its workforce. Fortune Leadership Editor Claire Zillman traveled to Malmö, Sweden, to take a closer look at Ikea’s upskilling strategy.