They should have seen it coming. An all-hands meeting held by Canva’s co-founders nine months ago directed employees to start using artificial intelligence programs wherever possible. As with other employers across a range of industries, the design software giant hoped to increase productivity by using AI tools to make its day-to-day operations smoother.

It turns out some divisions embraced this mandate a little too well. Last week, Canva told the majority of its technical writing team on Friday that their services were no longer required. It is the first known redundancy round by the fast-growing technology group – ever.