May 8 (Reuters) - Cloudflare shares tumbled ⁠more than 15% in premarket trading on Friday, after its quarterly ⁠revenue forecast disappointed investors who had bet the stock would be ‌a major beneficiary in the race to adopt artificial intelligence.

The networking and cybersecurity services provider will also lay off about 20% of staff due to greater use of AI tools, a move ​that Jefferies said could hurt near-term growth.

Following a ⁠43% rally since its last ⁠quarterly results in February, analysts said expectations were high for the company, only ⁠for ‌its forecast to flag slower growth as rising AI infrastructure costs squeeze margins.

Cloudflare said it expects revenue to increase up to about 30% ⁠in the second quarter, slower than the 33.5% growth ​recorded in the first ‌quarter. Its adjusted gross margins shrank to a record low of ⁠72.8% in the ​first quarter, from 77.1% a year ago.

"To protect its profitability, the firm is trading higher infrastructure costs and depreciation for salaries," Morningstar senior equity analyst Malik Ahmed Khan ⁠said.

The AI-driven layoffs align Cloudflare with companies such ​as Jack Dorsey's Block, which have said the technology could change how work is done by automating tasks such as coding.