Netflix has laid off members of its product team, accounting for less than 1% of its total 6,000 employees. No senior product division executives were let go.
The layoffs, affected dozens of employees, TheWrap has learned. Elizabeth Stone added the product team to her purview earlier this month. Her expanded responsibilities follow former Netflix product chief Eunice Kim’s exit in September.
Netflix declined to comment.
In 2026, Netflix plans to continue expanding its product features, including interactive experiences such as live voting and Moments; connectivity that allows users to play games on their TV using a phone; real-time personalized recommendations tailored to viewers’ moods and interests; and new discovery and viewing experiences, including thematic title collections and vertical video on mobile.
The company has also expanded its live events coverage, most recently with Alex Honnold’s free climb of Taipei 101.
Additionally, Netflix began testing new AI tools for advertisers in 2025 to create custom ads based on the company’s IP and will build on that progress in 2026. It also introduced automated workflows for ad concepts and used advanced AI models to streamline campaign planning, significantly speeding up these processes.
On the content production and promotion side, AI is being used to improve subtitle localization and will be expanded to help with merchandising.
The layoffs come as Netflix has entered into an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets, raising concerns in Hollywood and on Capitol Hill about potential job losses.
While executives have said the deal would result in $2 billion to $3 billion in cost savings by the third year after closing, management has emphasized that the savings would primarily come from selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses and eliminating duplicative back-end tech systems.
Shareholders are expected to vote on the proposed acquisition by April, and the companies have said it would close within 12 to 18 months, pending regulatory approval.
