Abstract:
According to Sina Technology, several netizens on social platforms who claimed to be employees of New Oriental recently broke the news that the company is launching a new round of personnel adjustments. Many branch centers across the country have optimized personnel quotas. In addition to layoffs in Guangdong, some senior executives have been demoted.
The laid-off employee Xiaomiao (pseudonym) confirmed that this round of adjustments in her city is mainly aimed at functional positions, with about 20% of the layoffs. The department optimization work is now nearing completion; front-end positions such as sales and front-line teachers will be relatively less affected.
Another former New Oriental employee revealed that this is the third round of personnel adjustments for New Oriental this year. There were optimizations in January and March, and most of them were eliminated at the bottom of the department. The intensity was far less than during the double reduction period.
It is understood that many employees pointed to the AI policy being vigorously promoted within the company as the root of the problem. In fact, New Oriental's management has previously expressed its stance on personnel adjustments.
In March this year, Sun Tao, vice president of New Oriental and executive vice president of the International Education Division, said that overlapping positions and technology iteration will only bring about a small proportion of natural optimization, and there will not be large-scale layoffs. The study abroad service industry is a labor-intensive track, and the impact of AI will be moderate and limited.
In September this year, at the 2026 Chongli Forum, New Oriental founder Yu Minhong gave a speech around AI. During the period, he revealed that New Oriental has more than 400 R&D personnel dedicated to combining education and AI.
At the same time, New Oriental is also entrusting external teams to participate in solving problems in education, life, cultural tourism and other fields.
According to Yu Minhong, he hopes to use a third-party perspective to find new ideas for combining education and AI, rather than relying entirely on internal research and development.
According to him, the time New Oriental teachers currently spend on preparing lessons is only one-fifth of what they used to do; with the help of AI, his original working group of at least 20 people has been reduced to about 5 people.
It is worth noting that at the financial reporting level, New Oriental's performance is rising. In Q4 of fiscal year 2026 (March 1st - May 31st), the company's net profit attributable to shareholders surged 775.8% year-on-year to US$62.182 million, and net revenue increased 23% year-on-year to US$1.530 billion.
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