Microsoft has announced a buyout offer to 60,000 employees as it looks to cut costs amid the growing use of artificial intelligence, according to reports.
The offer is the latest in a series of workforce reductions at the company this year. In April, Microsoft offered voluntary retirement to about seven percent of its US workforce, which then stood at roughly 125,000 employees. The company employs about 223,000 people worldwide.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that several of Microsoft’s best-known divisions will take part, including Xbox, Windows and Copilot, its AI tool. Employees in some divisions, including cybersecurity, datacenters and marketing, will not be eligible.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive vice-president and chief people officer, said in a statement that the offer gives eligible employees “a new choice” to leave the company now with support. She added that it gives participating organisations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs. Microsoft did not respond to a request for further details.
Other technology companies have also cut jobs this year as they invest more in AI. Meta announced plans in April to cut ten percent of its staff, about 8,000 employees. Amazon has made several cuts, most recently in its retail division. In June, Oracle cut nearly 13 percent of its workforce, or 21,000 jobs, because of AI.
It remains unclear whether the cuts have made these companies more efficient, and some, including Meta, have scaled back their layoff plans. Ryan Roslansky, a senior Microsoft leader, recently complained about “AI slop” in the workforce on social media.
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research also points to doubts about AI’s impact. Of the 9,000 senior executives it surveyed worldwide, 90 percent said AI had not yet made their companies more productive.
