Microsoft buyout reportedly excludes employees in certain divisions, including cybersecurity

Reported participants include Xbox, Windows and Microsoft’s AI tool Copilot

Bloomberg reported on Monday that employees in certain divisions, including cybersecurity, datacenters and marketing, would not be eligible for Microsoft’s buyout offer. The same report said Xbox, Windows and Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool, would participate.

In a statement, Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive vice-president and chief people officer, said: “This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on further details about the offer. The Guardian reported that Microsoft had announced buyouts for 60,000 employees to reduce costs amid the rising use of artificial intelligence, calling the move the latest of several trimmings to the company’s workforce this year.

In April, Microsoft announced it was offering voluntary retirement to about 7% of its U.S. workforce, which consisted of about 125,000 employees at the time. Its global workforce was made up of about 223,000 workers globally.

The Guardian placed Microsoft’s offer among technology-company layoffs associated with the rise of AI and increased investment in the technology. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced in April plans to cut 10% of its personnel, or about 8,000 employees, to boost efficiency. Amazon has made several workforce cuts, most recently in its retail division. In June, Oracle shed nearly 13% of its workforce, cutting 21,000 jobs, as a result of AI.

The Guardian said it remained unclear whether those workforce-reduction measures had translated yet into greater efficiency. Some companies, including Meta, have scaled back their layoff plans.

Ryan Roslansky, whom The Guardian described as a top leader of Microsoft, recently complained about “AI slop” in the workforce on social media.

The National Bureau of Economic Research also recently published a working paper based on a survey of 9,000 senior executives from around the world. It found that 90% said AI had yet to result in greater productivity at their companies.