The growing impact of AI-powered search has started to leave visible marks in the tech ecosystem, and this time, it has affected one of the most widely used web development tools. Tailwind CSS, a framework that has become almost essential for modern frontend development, has been forced to drastically downsize its engineering team after a steep decline in traffic and revenue tied to AI-powered search.

Adam Wathan, creator of Tailwind CSS, revealed on GitHub that the company had to lay off 75 percent of its engineering staff, reducing the team from four people to just one. The decision was not driven by Tailwind’s decline in popularity, he said, but rather by how people now find and consume information online.

According to Wathan, traffic on Tailwind’s documentation has declined by about 40 percent compared to the beginning of 2023. This is a major blow as the documentation site is not only a help resource, but also the primary channel through which developers discover Tailwind’s paid products. With fewer footfalls on documents, conversions have been impacted, leading to an estimated 80 per cent drop in revenue.

“The reality is that 75 percent of our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact of AI on our business,” Wathan wrote. He said that despite Tailwind being “more popular than ever”, fewer users are accessing the official documentation pages. “Documents are the only way people find out about our commercial products, and without customers we can’t afford to maintain this structure,” he said.

The post highlights a broader issue that is often overlooked in discussions around AI search. While most of the focus is on how news publishers and content creators are losing traffic, Tailwind’s situation shows that software platforms that rely on detailed documentation are facing similar challenges. Developers are increasingly turning to AI chatbots and searching for summaries for quick answers, abandoning official documentation altogether.

Wathan also addressed suggestions to add LLMs.txt or other AI-optimized document formats to help larger language models better contextualize Tailwind’s content. Although he accepted the idea, he clarified that the company is not in a position to give priority to such work at present. “I really want to figure out a way to offer LLM-optimized documents that doesn’t make that situation even worse,” he wrote, but added that since the team is now 75 percent smaller, that may not be possible in the short term.

What makes the situation more attractive is the difference between usage and income. Wathan summarized the gap between adoption and sustainability in the era of AI-powered search, saying, “The tailwind is growing faster and bigger than ever, and our revenue is down by close to 80 percent.”

The post sparked a wave of support from the developer community and major tech players. Google was one of the first to take action publicly. Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio and Gemini API, announced at X that Google will be sponsoring the Tailwind CSS project. He wrote, “I’m excited to share that we (the @GoogleAIStudio team) are now sponsors of the @tailwindcss project! Honored to support and find ways to work together to help the ecosystem of builders.”

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch also confirmed support for Tailwind, calling it the infrastructure for the modern web. “Versatel will officially sponsor TailwindCSS.com. It’s confirmed,” Rauch said on X.

While Google and Vercel’s financial support provides some relief, the episode raises uncomfortable questions about the future of open-source tools and developer-focused platforms. As AI search tools continue to prioritize short, generated answers, the traditional model of learning through official documentation and discovering paid offerings along the way appears to be under pressure.

Tailwind’s experience shows that the impact of AI on the web goes far beyond media companies. Even products that “fix CSS”, as Rauch put it, are now struggling to transition from popularity to existence. The challenge ahead will be to find ways for creators, platforms, and AI providers to co-exist without hollowing out the ecosystem that powers modern software development.