Interview Kickstart Lays Off Nearly 50 in AI Automation Shift

Interview Kickstart, the Blume Ventures-backed upskilling platform, cut nearly 50 employees last week in a restructuring driven by rising AI automation. The move marks a strategic shift away from its core B2C coaching model toward AI products and enterprise services.

Cofounder Soham Mehta confirmed the layoffs in a written response, saying fewer than 50 employees were impacted. Sources familiar with the process told Inc42 that the actual number was between 80 and 100, and that the cuts hit operations and support functions hardest. The company informed staff during a town hall on May 29.

The Catalyst: Town Hall and 50 Cuts

The restructuring was announced during a town hall meeting last Friday. One source said: “We were not prepared for this. Though the company was reducing employees over the past four months, nobody expected that around 80 folks would be let go.”

The primary trigger was the increasing role of AI in automating tasks that human coaches previously handled. Sources said enrollments at Interview Kickstart dropped 20–25% in 2026 compared with the prior year. Mehta rejected that claim. He pointed to the company's AI business growing 90% last year and overall year-over-year growth of 26% through March.

Key insight: The layoffs are not simply a cost-cutting exercise. They reflect a deliberate reallocation of resources from human-delivered coaching to AI-driven products and enterprise services. The naive read is that falling enrollment forced cuts. The better read is that the company is betting its future on higher-margin AI and B2B revenue streams, even if that means shrinking the legacy coaching headcount.

Enrollment Decline vs. AI Growth

Mehta's denial of an enrollment decline sits alongside a 90% jump in AI business revenue. That tension matters. If enrollments are indeed down, the pivot to AI is partly defensive – replacing lost coaching revenue with automation. If enrollments are stable, the restructuring is purely offensive: doubling down on AI before the market forces the shift.

Either way, the company is now structured around two new brands. In April, Interview Kickstart launched Dexity for B2C AI courses. Separately, it created a new brand for B2B services, offering AI training and building AI products for large enterprises.

The B2B Pivot and Dexity Brand

Mehta described the B2B business as “fast-growing” and focused on “AI Acceleration” for some of the world’s largest enterprises. That work includes both training and product development. The B2C side, under Dexity, targets individual professionals seeking AI upskilling.

This dual-brand strategy mirrors a broader trend in the edtech and upskilling space: companies that once sold courses to individuals are now packaging their expertise as enterprise services. The unit economics are typically better – longer contracts, higher average revenue per customer, and lower churn.

Risk to watch: Enterprise sales cycles are longer and require different sales capabilities than B2C marketing. Interview Kickstart’s existing team was built for direct-to-consumer coaching. The restructuring may have removed the very operational staff needed to support enterprise onboarding.