Shamini 
(C): Bloomberg – twitter
In early June 2025, Microsoft laid off more than 300 employees, the latest round of job cuts as it continues to integrate operations around artificial intelligence. This is only weeks after the company made its largest job cuts in the past several years and laid off 6,000 employees.
The recent layoffs were revealed in a notice made with Washington state officials. While Microsoft did not specify which departments were impacted, the layoffs were part of large-scale organisational adjustments of which the company kept private. “We continue to make organisational changes; we need to have the company positioned for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a spokesperson said.
The restructuring indicates a profound change in how Microsoft will operate in the future, reallocating resources toward AI infrastructure and automation. CEO Satya Nadella said the changes were not based on performance but rather a “realignment”. Microsoft embarked on its journey to AI. “This was not about people failing,” he said during an internal town hall last week. “This was about repositioning for what is next.”
Read Also : Microsoft Layoffs: Satya Nadella-led tech giant begins job cuts based on performance
The layoffs reflected earlier patterns in other cuts, which typically involved software engineers and project managers facing job losses. A little over 40% of the 6,000 jobs eliminated last month were coding jobs, and project management roles were targeted as well.
Microsoft’s intention to implement AI faster has changed the nature of its workforce. Nadella also reported that AI is now responsible for as much as 30% of the code in some internal projects. Microsoft plans to invest nearly $80 billion this fiscal year to advance its data centres towards ambitious AI strategies.
As of June 2024, Microsoft employed around 228,000 full-time workers, with 55% of all employees based in the U.S. Microsoft and other industry players like Meta, Google and Salesforce are moving towards flatter organisational structures and smarter, AI-augmented workflows, together disrupting the technology labour space as the speed of automation begins to take hold.
