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GitLab has unveiled a major organizational overhaul as it positions itself for what CEO Bill Staples describes as the emerging “agentic era” of software development, where AI-powered agents take on a much larger role across the development lifecycle.
As part of the initiative, referred to internally as “GitLab Act 2,” the company confirmed plans for restructuring that include a voluntary separation program and workforce reductions. The transition is expected to be completed by June 1, depending on regional legal requirements.
The restructuring effort will significantly reshape GitLab’s operations. The company plans to reduce its footprint by as much as 30% in locations with smaller teams, remove up to three layers of management in certain departments, and reorganize research and development into roughly 60 smaller, focused teams. GitLab also intends to expand the use of AI agents internally to automate reviews, approvals, and workflow handoffs.
According to the company, the restructuring and its evolving product direction are connected but not identical initiatives. GitLab explained that its current organizational model was built for a previous stage of software engineering and must adapt to a future where AI systems become deeply integrated into software production and delivery.
The company’s broader vision centers on the idea that software will increasingly be “created by machines and guided by humans.” In this approach, AI agents are expected to handle tasks such as planning, coding, code reviews, deployment, and maintenance, while human developers focus on system architecture, business context, trade-offs, and strategic decision-making.
This strategy builds upon GitLab’s Duo Agent Platform, introduced earlier this year. The company says the platform has shown encouraging adoption during the first quarter and that investment in AI-driven development capabilities will continue to accelerate.
A major focus of the transition is preparing infrastructure for machine-scale software development. GitLab anticipates a future where AI agents generate merge requests simultaneously, trigger pipelines continuously, and submit commits at speeds far beyond traditional human workflows. To support this, the company is redesigning sections of its platform to operate efficiently under agent-level activity by default.
GitLab also plans to redefine the role of CI/CD by turning it into an orchestration system for both human developers and AI agents. Instead of handling only human-generated commits and deployments, the platform will coordinate AI agents throughout the entire development lifecycle, maintain context, apply governance policies, validate outputs, and involve engineers whenever human oversight is necessary.
The company emphasized that customers should not expect disruptions to support services, product roadmaps, or contractual commitments. However, users may notice changes in how quickly and extensively new features and platform enhancements are delivered.
Alongside these operational changes, GitLab is revising its internal culture framework. The company is retiring its long-standing CREDIT values model and replacing it with three updated principles: “Speed with Quality,” “Ownership Mindset,” and “Customer Outcomes.” GitLab says these principles are intended to reduce bureaucracy, streamline decision-making, and strengthen accountability within smaller, more agile teams.
