As China’s tech firms adapt to AI era, workers worry they’ll be ‘optimised’ out of a job

When a friend checked in on a Meituan employee late last month to see if he had survived the latest round of corporate culling at the food delivery giant, he responded drily: “I don’t know whether it will be me next.”Anxieties were running high at the company then, after chat screenshots circulated on Chinese social media claiming Meituan planned to slash up to half of its product roles by the end of June, coupled with deep cuts to other departments.While Meituan quickly denied the rumours, the viral speculation struck a sensitive nerve across China’s tech industry. Behind the online claims, employees whisper that a quieter, more insidious form of retrenchment has been under way for months.