Dutch government to cut 16 percent of workforce as part of AI efficiency push

The cabinet announced that it wants to get rid of 25,000 full-time jobs by 2035.

Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal

No job is secure from the advent of artificial intelligence's rapid growth. In a lengthy post detailing how the Dutch government plans to improve efficiency, it announced that it would get rid of 25,000 full time jobs over the span of a few years as part of cost-cutting measures. As part of that effort, the government is also planning to lean on AI to contribute to productivity.

According to the Dutch government, the goal is to cut back 900 million euros, or around $1 billion, in costs by 2027, with that estimate rising to 3.5 billion euros, or approximately $3.9 billion, by 2035. The post detailed that not all government agencies will be affected, with police and defense being excluded.

It's unclear how the government plans to deploy AI to reduce costs, but the post read that the Dutch cabinet will "come up with goals and savings plans for deploying AI to work more productively," in the first quarter of 2027. The country's state secretary, Eric van der Burg wrote in a letter to the Dutch parliament that this overall effort was part of a push to make the government "simpler, smart and smaller."

Earlier reports from Dutch news outlets reported that the government had been planning to incorporate AI in its cost savings efforts since earlier this year. As reported by Bloomberg, van der Burg wants to "apply AI even more broadly," after several AI initiatives have already been established across different government sectors.