Microsoft cuts 300 more jobs, extending largest layoffs in years: Report
Microsoft has reportedly carried out yet another round of job cuts, adding to what has already been the tech giant's largest wave of layoffs in recent years.
Over 300 employees were eliminated from their positions at the company on Monday, June 2, according to a report by Bloomberg. The latest reduction in workforce is in addition to the 6,000 job cuts announced by Microsoft in May this year.
While software engineers at the firm were most affected by the previous layoffs, it is still unclear which divisions have been impacted in the latest round of job cuts. Up till June 2024, Microsoft reportedly had around 2,28,000 full-time employees, a majority (55 per cent) of whom were based in the US.
'We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,' a Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
The layoffs reflect a broader shift across big tech companies such as Microsoft and Meta as they increasingly channel investment and resources toward data centres and AI development while pulling back on spending in other parts of their operations.
Another factor driving layoffs across the tech industry is the rise of AI coding tools capable of automating parts of the software development process. At Microsoft, engineers are using AI to write 20% to 30% of code for company projects, CEO Satya Nadella said last month at Meta's LlamaCon conference.
In a conversation with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nadella noted that the exact percentage of AI-generated code varies by programming language. He said AI writes 'fantastic' Python code, though its C++ capabilities are 'not that great.' Nadella also shared that Microsoft is increasingly relying on more advanced AI agents—software programs that perform complex tasks without human assistance—to review code.
At Google, CEO Sundar Pichai said on an earnings call last month that the company was using AI to write 'well over 30%' of new code—up from 25% in October. He also noted that employees are increasingly accepting AI-suggested code. 'I still see it as early days, and there's going to be a lot more to do,' Pichai said.
The latest company to join this trend is Salesforce, which now says its internal use of AI tools has enabled it to hire fewer employees, particularly engineers and customer service workers. 'We view these as assistants, but they are going to allow us to hire fewer people and, hopefully, make our existing team more productive,' Robin Washington, the chief financial and operations officer at SalesForce, was quoted as saying in an interview with Bloomberg.
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