Microsoft’s chief business officer Judson Althoff stated throughout a presentation this week that AI instruments are boosting productiveness throughout gross sales, customer support, and software program engineering, Bloomberg reports. Althoff famous AI has been so helpful that Microsoft was capable of save greater than $500 million final 12 months in its name heart alone.
The inner remarks come every week after Microsoft laid off greater than 9,000 employees, the corporate’s third spherical of layoffs this 12 months that put the full variety of affected workers someplace round 15,000.
For workers who misplaced their jobs whereas working at an organization that’s reporting spectacular cost-savings and recording certainly one of its most worthwhile quarters but, Althoff’s remarks would possibly come off as tone deaf.
The scenario had already been sophisticated by a now-deleted LinkedIn post from Xbox Sport Studios’ producer Matt Turnbull, who final week steered that employees feeling “overwhelmed” by Microsoft’s layoffs – which included job cuts throughout Xbox – would possibly discover assist by AI instruments like ChatGPT and Copilot to assist handle the cognitive load that comes with job loss.
It’s not clear whether or not the 1000’s of employees who misplaced their jobs this 12 months had been changed by AI or whether or not the layoffs symbolize post-pandemic right-sizing. What is evident is that workforce changes throughout a interval of file profitability creates a difficult dynamic that, for some, has to sting.
Microsoft closed out the primary quarter with $26 billion in revenue and $70 billion in income. The corporate’s market capitalization has additionally surged in latest months to round $3.74 trillion, displacing Apple and trailing solely Nvidia.
Microsoft has signaled that a lot of that revenue will movement instantly into AI. The corporate stated in January it will make investments $80 billion into AI infrastructure throughout 2025. Whereas Microsoft continues to rent expertise, too, the corporate seems positioned to extra actively take part within the industry-wide competitors of ‘Who Can Pay Prime AI Researchers The Most?’ Briefly, it’s extra possible we’ll see Microsoft spend tens of millions of {dollars} on prime AI researchers relatively than center managers and different workers.