Microsoft to fire thousands of employees in sales next month amid AI expansion: Report
Microsoft is reportedly preparing for another wave of job cuts, signalling a fresh round of corporate restructuring as the tech giant approaches the close of its 2025 fiscal year. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the layoffs will target thousands of roles, with a particular focus on the sales division. While the company has not formally confirmed the move, the timing aligns with its long-standing pattern of trimming roles and reorganising operations around the end of each financial year, a cycle that ends this year on June 30.advertisementIf implemented, the impending cuts would follow closely on the heels of a significant workforce reduction in May, when Microsoft axed roughly 6,000 positions, about 3 per cent of its global headcount. That earlier round affected a wide swathe of departments, reportedly including engineering, customer support and marketing.The Redmond-based firm, which employed approximately 2,28,000 people as of June 2024, has seen little year-on-year change in its workforce numbers. The sales and marketing segment, one of the company's largest, remained flat at 45,000 employees, behind only operations (86,000) and product research and development (81,000).
Though Microsoft has yet to explicitly link its recent layoffs to its growing investment in artificial intelligence, observers believe that the ongoing shift towards AI-led automation may be reshaping how the company envisions its workforce. A recent internal research paper published by Microsoft pointed toward a future where smaller, AI-assisted teams become the norm across a variety of sectors — a potential harbinger for leaner staffing models.advertisement'Many enterprises are re-evaluating legacy structures in favour of more agile, AI-enhanced approaches,' the report noted, without referencing any internal staffing plans.This restructuring trend reflects a wider shift across the tech industry, where companies are increasingly leaning on generative AI and large language models to boost productivity, streamline workflows and reduce dependence on traditional human-heavy roles, particularly in functions like sales, customer support and administration.Microsoft, a key player in the AI arms race thanks to its multi-billion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, has spent the past year embedding AI across its suite of products, from Microsoft 365 and Azure to its Copilot productivity assistant. While these tools are positioned as value-adds for customers, they may also facilitate a quieter transformation of the company's workforce structure.The forthcoming job cuts, if confirmed, would mark yet another chapter in Microsoft's recent strategy of balancing ambitious technological investment with a leaner operating model. For employees in the firing line, however, it's likely to be a difficult start to the summer.
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