Microsoft saves 500 million dollars through AI – while 15,000 have to go

The use of artificial intelligence is apparently already generating considerable savings at Microsoft. According to the US financial news agency Bloomberg, Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff explained in a presentation this week that the company had more than 500 million dollars less costs in its call centers alone than in the same period last year. The AI systems had noticeably increased productivity in the areas of sales, customer service, and software development.

The statements come just one week after the third major round of layoffs of the year, in which Microsoft once again cut more than 9,000 jobs. In total, around 15,000 employees lost their jobs in 2024, while the company recorded one of its most profitable quarters. Critics are therefore accusing Microsoft of tactlessness and questioning the necessity of the redundancies. According to Microsoft, the largest wave of layoffs since 2023 was intended to best “position the company for success in a dynamic market.”

Good figures, bad timing?

In addition to the bad timing criticized by critics, there is also a LinkedIn post by Xbox Game Studios producer Matt Turnbull. In it, he suggested that employees “overwhelmed” by the redundancies could get support from AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot to help them deal with the stress of losing their jobs. According to media reports, the post has since been removed.

The discrepancy between cost savings and redundancies is made even clearer by Microsoft's business figures: in the first quarter, the company made a profit of 26 billion dollars on a turnover of 70 billion dollars. Its market capitalization climbed to 3.74 trillion dollars, overtaking Apple. Only Nvidia is still ahead of the Redmond-based company. It remains unclear whether the laid-off employees were directly replaced by AI systems or whether the pandemic, with its increased demand for staff, is intended to reduce the number of employees back to the previous level.

(mki)