Microsoft is planning to axe thousands of jobs, particularly in sales, as part of the company’s latest move to trim its workforce amid heavy spending on artificial intelligence.
The news will come as a new blow to Microsoft’s Irish-based workforce, which is already facing cuts announced last month aimed at reducing the company’s layers of management. Microsoft currently employs around 6,000 people in Ireland including its LinkedIn professional networking platform.
The cuts are expected to be announced early next month, following the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year, according to people familiar with the matter. The reductions won’t exclusively affect sales teams, and the timing could still change, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter.
[ Are Ireland’s tech layoffs down to an AI rout?Opens in new window ]
The company declined to comment.
Microsoft has trimmed jobs several times since 2023, when it cut 10,000 jobs globally as part of a wave of job losses hit the wider tech community. The prospect of more cuts had been reported in April, and the company told employees it planned to use third-party firms to handle more sales of software to small and mid-size customers.
Microsoft has said it regularly re-evaluates the organisational structure to make sure it’s investing for growth. As the company spends tens of billions of dollars on servers and data centres, executives have pledged to Wall Street, and warned employees, that it would keep a lid on spending in other areas.
The company had 228,000 workers at the end of June 2024, 45,000 of them in sales and marketing. Microsoft often restructures teams and announces other changes near the end of its fiscal year, which closes in June.
News of the cuts came a day after Amazon told its white-collar employees that their jobs are at risk from artificial intelligence in the next few years, marking a rare explicit warning from a senior tech executive that AI will lead to lay-offs.
Andy Jassy, the ecommerce giant’s chief executive, told employees in a memo on Tuesday that the company was deploying AI across its operations, particularly in its logistics network, to help lower costs.
He said the company wants to increase its use of AI, which would mean job losses.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Mr Jassy said. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time but in the next few years we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”
The memo comes as Amazon and other big tech groups are under pressure from investors to show they can deliver efficiencies from their vast investment in AI. The company also faces a threat to its business from Donald Trump’s volatile trade policy. – Bloomberg
