FiscalNote is cutting roughly a quarter of its workforce, eliminating about 110 jobs at the Washington, D.C.-based policy-intelligence firm, the company said Thursday. The layoffs are tied to a companywide pivot toward AI-powered tools and a shift to move some work offshore. Employees were told the restructuring is meant to lower operating costs and sharpen the company’s focus on product development, turning a routine cost-cutting memo into a major shakeup for one of the city’s better-known policy-tech outfits.
As first reported by the Washington Business Journal, the cuts amount to roughly a quarter of FiscalNote’s staff and are linked to the company’s plan to automate some routine tasks with AI while sending other work offshore. The Business Journal’s March 19, 2026 story attributed the plan to comments from new leadership and internal company announcements. At that point, FiscalNote had not released a detailed public breakdown of which teams would feel the most pain.
Leadership change set the stage
Josh Resnik, who took over as CEO on January 1, 2025 after founder Tim Hwang moved into an executive chairman role, has been steering a broader operational reset at FiscalNote, FiscalNote said at the time. That leadership succession was billed as a move to "drive the next phase of growth" and tighten operational efficiency rather than a warning shot for job cuts.
Investor materials released earlier reinforced that theme. In particular, an earnings update on FiscalNote shows the firm emphasizing margin improvement, simplifying its product mix, and pursuing cost controls and divestitures to shore up its balance sheet. This latest round of layoffs slots neatly into that playbook.
Part of a broader AI and offshoring pattern
Analysts and industry researchers say FiscalNote’s move is not happening in a vacuum. It fits into a larger pattern of companies citing AI when trimming payrolls while also shifting work overseas, a mix that could reshape a lot of mid-level tech and content jobs. Research highlighted by IT Pro notes that instead of fully automating roles, firms often replace some work with lower-cost human labor abroad.
That backdrop has sharpened scrutiny from workers and policy watchers whenever companies lean on AI language to explain layoffs, particularly in a city where people make a living tracking how technology, regulation, and jobs intersect.
Local implications
The cuts will shrink one of Washington’s more visible policy-tech employers and could ripple through a relatively tight local market for people who build legislative and regulatory products. Reporting from the Washington Business Journal puts the scale at about 110 roles and notes that employees were told teams would be re-scoped as part of the restructuring. What this means in practice for contractors and clients remains to be seen.
We will update this story as FiscalNote or affected employees share additional details. More information about which teams and offices are impacted could surface in the coming days.
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