PayPal CEO says the company must become 'a technology company again,' with AI adoption central to a $1.5 billion cost-savings plan over the next two to three years.

PayPal CEO Enrique Lores told investors on a first-quarter earnings call that the company needs to 'recommit to the fundamentals' by modernizing its tech platform, moving to 'cloud-native' architecture, and 'aggressively adopting AI in our development processes.'

The company formed a new 'AI transformation and simplification' team to oversee the rollout. AI adoption will extend beyond coding into customer service, support operations, and risk management, according to executives on the call.

PayPal expects the AI-enabled changes combined with planned layoffs (around 20% of its workforce over the next two to three years, equating to north of 4,500 jobs) to bring at least $1.5 billion in cost savings over the next two to three years.