Microsoft has internally shared that the tech giant is using AI to save hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the fact that it is driving away thousands of workers.
Leaked during a presentation to staff this week BloombergMicrosoft's Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff, said that AI tools are helping workers increase productivity across the board, from sales to customer service. For customer service workers, Althoff noted that Microsoft saved more than $500 million last year on call centre productivity. Increased employee and customer satisfaction with interactions.
Related: Microsoft claims that its AI is better than doctors at diagnosing patients, but “you still need your doctor.”
As of January, Microsoft was on track to invest around $80 billion in AI infrastructure and other AI initiatives for 2025. More than half of this investment is concentrated on the latest revenues from Microsoft, US, released in April, ending March 31, with revenues of $7.01 billion, 13% year-on-year. CEO Satya Nadella attributed the results to the growth of “Cloud and AI.”
On the sales side, Microsoft employees are using the company's Copilot AI assistant to generate 9% revenue by helping salespeople find more leads and close deals faster, Althoff said. However, Copilot lags behind ChatGpt in terms of mainstream adoption, attracting around 20 million weekly users worldwide, compared to ChatGPT's 500 million weekly users.
For software engineers, Althoff said that AI will generate 35% of the new code at Microsoft, reducing the time it takes to launch. Github Copilot, Microsoft's AI coding tool, is a market leader with 15 million users.
Althoff is also taking on new initiatives by Microsoft to use AI to take over communication with small customers.
Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
When Microsoft doubles its incorporation of AI into its daily operations, the company is firing its employees. Last week, Microsoft announced it was cutting around 9,000 staff, about 4% of the global workforce. In May, the company fired 6,000 employees and cut hundreds more in June.
In June 2024, prior to the recent layoffs, Microsoft reported that it had acquired a global workforce of 228,000 employees and 126,000 in the US.
However, Microsoft has denied that AI has led to layoffs. According to BloombergMicrosoft's leading lawyer Brad Smith said Wednesday that AI was “not a major factor” in recent recruitment.
Microsoft is one of the most valuable companies in the world, second only to Nvidia, with a market value of $3.71 trillion at the time of writing.
Related: Xbox producers tell layoff workers to resort to AI for advice if they feel “overwhelmed”
