AT&T cuts jobs as it retires copper and automates telecom

The workforce is the first visible change

“In five years, we will not have as many employees as we do today,” AT&T chief technology officer Jeremy Legg told WIRED.

The comparison with competitors is part of the calculation. According to public financial reports, AT&T generated less revenue per employee last year than Verizon and T-Mobile. Both companies have also cut staff in recent months.

If AT&T continues cutting at last year’s pace, its workforce could approach 85 000 people by 2030. A source familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, described that figure as a company target. AT&T said the number was inaccurate.

AT&T had almost 131 000 employees in June. Chief executive John Stankey said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco in early September that the company wants to become “radically different” by the end of the decade, centered on strong fiber internet and wireless networks.

The company is applying AI systems to:

Some of the work being automated is strikingly old-fashioned. Systems built decades ago still rely on paper records, and employees may handle routine tasks manually, including disconnecting a customer’s phone service.

AT&T’s generative AI system GeoModeler changes network settings in real time during rare events, including extreme weather. Starting next year, the company will also replace physical equipment in thousands of central offices with cloud software from DriveNets, an Israeli startup in which AT&T has invested. Technicians will be able to change settings remotely, such as when a customer requests faster internet.

The expected result is a smaller layer of middle management and fewer junior software development roles. Telecom employment in the United States has already declined for 25 years, according to government data. AI gives investors a reason to believe that the decline can accelerate while profits improve.

The old network is the other half

AT&T is retiring the copper network that has supported landline phone service and DSL internet for decades. Shutting down those services generally requires approval from regional and federal regulators because customers in rural areas may have no alternative. Some communities have protested the company’s plans.

By the end of this year, AT&T expects to end its obligations to maintain copper infrastructure across more than 85% of its current territory.

Chief financial officer Pascal Desroches said the move will take underused infrastructure out of service. That infrastructure consumes substantial electricity and requires significant employee attention.

AT&T has not disclosed precise energy-use figures. It reported in July that total energy consumption fell 13.1% from 2020 through the end of 2025. The company also said that moving away from copper lines has saved 660 000 MWh of electricity since 2024, roughly the consumption of 65 000 homes.

Stankey joked at the Goldman Sachs conference that AT&T might currently be the fifth-largest copper mine in the United States because of how much cable it owns.

Fiber, satellites and a different kind of workforce

AT&T is betting on high-speed fiber and wireless connectivity as the infrastructure it will need while AI drives the next stage of network growth. That puts the company in a market where the threat is not limited to Verizon and T-Mobile.

Wall Street investors are also asking about competition from SpaceX, whose Starlink satellite internet service is young but growing quickly. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are working on satellite connectivity and expect to use multiple technology providers, potentially including Starlink, Legg said.

Legg expects fiber to remain cheaper than satellite connectivity and says satellite internet will not work everywhere. AT&T therefore expects to offer customers the option that best fits their circumstances.

The internal transition is less tidy. After pandemic restrictions eased, AT&T restored a five-day office requirement for most employees and began monitoring compliance. That led to a natural outflow of some staff. Legg said the company’s culture had deteriorated and that companies which improved their cultures brought employees back to the office.

AT&T has invested heavily in office environments in Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle, including a summer childcare program and in-house therapists. Legg also praised a new coffee machine near his office.

I think the more revealing point is not the promised headcount reduction but the change in what remains after it. AT&T still plans to hire while shrinking overall, with new roles focused on developing and supervising AI agents, overseeing processes that are otherwise fully automated, and maintaining fiber lines after copper disappears.

What the announcement does not provide is a breakdown of how many jobs will vanish because of AI, how many because of the copper shutdown, and how many simply reflect a lower-cost operating model. That silence makes the 85 000 figure less a forecast than a marker of intent. AT&T is not just automating a telecom company; it is deciding which parts of its old physical and managerial structure still deserve to exist.