Opendoor shuts India operations, lays off 250 employees amid AI push

Layoffs reflect rising concerns over AI-driven job displacement in entry-level and back-office roles, alongside growing US policy pressure to shift more work onshore

US-based real estate firm Opendoor will shutter its India operations and lay off all 250 employees in the country as it shifts to greater use of AI, Chief Executive Kaz Nejatian said in a post on social media platform X on Thursday. 

The layoffs come amid growing concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could displace entry-level and back-office jobs, while US policymakers increasingly push for more work to be carried out locally. 

Founded in 2014, Opendoor operates a digital residential real estate platform that allows consumers to buy and sell homes online. The move comes two years after the company expanded its footprint by opening offices in the southern Indian cities of Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

   

"For years Opendoor built a large team in India to handle manual workflows across fragmented systems," the CEO said. 

"As we've unified these systems and have hired small AI-native customer-facing teams throughout the US, we need all this operational work to be done in person and close to our customers."