THE BOTS ARE COMING

Microsoft to Slash 9,000 Workers Amid AI Investment

The cuts target just under four percent of the company’s workforce.

Microsoft will be laying off about 9,000 workers, a company spokesperson said Wednesday, in what is the biggest round of layoffs since 2023 when 10,000 employees were let go. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, according to CNN. The company’s headcount as of last July was 228,000, but Wednesday’s announcement—combined with cuts this May of about 7,000—seem to indicate a smaller workforce. The layoffs, Bloomberg reported last month, would primarily affect the sales division. It’s unclear how the staff reductions may relate to artificial intelligence usage, though the company has been investing heavily in AI. CEO Satya Nadella told Meta head Mark Zuckerberg at a tech conference in April that as much as 30 percent of the company’s code was AI-produced. Elsewhere in the tech industry, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently announced that AI will mean a reduced corporate workforce in which employees should learn to incorporate AI to “get more done with scrappier teams.”