I can’t open LinkedIn with out seeing a brand new submit from a Microsoft worker who misplaced their job within the firm’s newest spherical of layoffs. Round 15,000 jobs have been eradicated at Microsoft over the previous couple months — the most important cuts on the firm in additional than a decade.
I’ve spoken to greater than a dozen Microsoft workers in latest weeks, and everybody is worried in regards to the firm’s path on this AI period. Morale is at an all-time low, and workers are nervous that common layoffs are merely the brand new regular.
Sources inform me that Microsoft’s management group had the selection between lowering funding in AI infrastructure for the upcoming monetary 12 months or deeply slicing its headcount and working bills. It’s very clear what route Microsoft selected.
These layoffs have been each broad and brutal. Whilst you’ve possible learn the headlines in regards to the influence on Xbox video games studios, Microsoft’s different cuts go far deeper and are a part of a much bigger plan to restructure Microsoft round AI instruments.
Microsoft has laid off technical specialists, enterprise technique consultants, and product managers. The gross sales facet of Microsoft, which is answerable for companies adopting its newest expertise, has been hit notably laborious. Even AI and cloud gross sales groups have seen cuts, and account managers throughout quite a lot of Microsoft merchandise have misplaced their jobs, too.
Microsoft’s layoffs have additionally impacted roles internationally, the place an AI operations supervisor in Portugal proved inclined to Microsoft’s newest reductions. Some workers even found they’d misplaced their job whereas on trip, and one was laid off twice in round six months.
This doesn’t imply MS is essentially lowering headcount general, as workers like Patrick Lyons are being compelled to use for different roles. That might imply Microsoft’s headcount would possibly really be comparable this 12 months to 2024.
Skilled veteran workers had been additionally lower just lately. Former engineering supervisor HongQiao Li had spent practically 21 years at Microsoft prototyping the early model of Copilot in Workplace, earlier than the most recent cuts. Trinh Tran, a senior companion expertise strategist, had devoted 23 years to Microsoft whereas constructing options for the corporate’s cloud enterprise and championing accessibility. Enterprise technique skilled Darron Inman joined Microsoft in 1996 and is “disillusioned that I didn’t fairly make it to the 30-year mark.”
Microsoft’s gaming enterprise has been closely impacted by the most recent cull. Uncommon’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Good Darkish video games have been canceled, with The Initiative shutting down consequently. Blackbird, a brand new recreation from ZeniMax On-line Studios, impressed Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer earlier this 12 months, but it surely was canceled anyway. Blizzard can be sunsetting its Warcraft cellular recreation, simply months after Activision wound down its Name of Obligation: Warzone cellular recreation.
Forza Motorsport developer Flip 10 Studios was additionally hit laborious by Microsoft’s cuts. One supply described the layoffs as leaving sufficient individuals behind to maintain the sport up and working. It seems to be like Flip 10 will merely be a help studio for the Forza franchise, so I doubt we’ll see one other Motorsport entry from the group.
Raven, Sledgehammer Video games, Uncommon, ZeniMax On-line Studios, Halo Studios, and King have all been impacted by the Xbox cuts. King, which is behind Sweet Crush, is getting ready to chop as many as 200 employees, with the London-based Farm Heroes Saga group already being lower in half. Laid off King employees are reportedly being changed by the AI instruments they helped construct.
At Irish developer Romero Video games, 100 jobs are additionally in danger after Microsoft pulled funding for a challenge they had been engaged on. Microsoft reportedly had a gathering with Romero the day earlier than the financing dried up, with none point out of the choice. Romero is now on the lookout for one other publishing companion for its recreation to keep away from the studio’s closure.
Uncommon’s Gregg Mayles, a 35-year veteran, is leaving Microsoft following the Everwild cancellation, alongside Louise O’Connor, government producer of Everwild. ZeniMax president Matt Firor is departing after 18 years main the studio.
Microsoft has additionally lower its Xbox person analysis group in half. It’s a key group that focuses on making certain high quality throughout Xbox video games, the platform, and developer instruments. With out person analysis groups, Microsoft might have extra video games delivery in a poor state like Redfall. The Xbox cuts have impacted neighborhood managers, designers, and branding consultants, too.
Whereas Microsoft didn’t “really feel the burn” by launching a fiery Xbox controller in parallel with gaming layoffs this 12 months, it nonetheless had some tone-deaf mishaps this time round.
Xbox government producer Matt Turnbull really useful that laid off workers search recommendation from AI chatbots to “assist cut back the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.” The ID@Xbox group despatched out an electronic mail blast about an AI roundtable at Gamescom as creatives rightfully fear about being changed by AI.
“Utilizing AI is now not optionally available” inside some elements of Microsoft, as Julia Liuson, president of Microsoft’s developer division, proclaimed in an inner memo just lately. Microsoft is reportedly now asking some managers to judge workers primarily based on how a lot they use AI instruments. Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s chief business officer, even boasted — in the identical week that Microsoft slashed jobs — in regards to the firm saving greater than $500 million final 12 months in simply its name facilities because of AI.
To prime off the mishaps, principal developer lead Mike Matsel posted a sloppy, AI-generated “Xbox Graphics is hiring” picture on LinkedIn, with a monitor’s show on the incorrect facet. Microsoft has been repeatedly posting AI slop to its company blogs for greater than a 12 months now, with no care on this planet about how dangerous the pictures look, so it’s not stunning to see extra workers following alongside.
This AI slop is generated by the identical instruments that Microsoft is making an attempt to persuade companies to make use of. The corporate remains to be struggling to promote its $30 per person, monthly Copilot subscription, and the layoffs which have impacted Microsoft’s gross sales groups are a part of a broader restructuring effort to usher in extra technical salespeople to raised show AI instruments to companies. To that finish, Microsoft is reportedly changing conventional salespeople with “options engineers.”
Microsoft is competing with Google, Anthropic, Amazon, and even its AI companion OpenAI for a slice of the enterprise AI pie. In the event you combine that with AI infrastructure prices, you get the kind of fixed mass layoffs we’ve seen at Microsoft over the previous 18 months.
The ambiance inside Microsoft is now very completely different from only a decade in the past, when Microsoft was thought of cool once more and Satya Nadella had simply been promoted to CEO and overhauled the corporate’s tradition to embrace a world past Home windows. That tradition change noticed Microsoft make some large acquisitions like LinkedIn and GitHub, and noticed it actually capitalize on the shift to cloud computing. Now, Microsoft dangers making a tradition of concern because it pushes workers to adapt to the guarantees of AI, the place shock “performance-related” job cuts can occur at any time, all as a result of it’s in an unsure AI race that’s costing tens of billions of {dollars}.
- Mercedes-Benz will allow you to use an in-car digital camera in Microsoft Groups whereas driving. You’ll quickly be capable of be a part of a Microsoft Groups name in some Mercedes‑Benz automobiles and use the in-car digital camera to talk with colleagues whilst you’re driving. It’s a part of a brand new replace to the Groups app for the all-new CLA, making Mercedes‑Benz the primary automaker to allow in-car digital camera use for Microsoft Groups whereas a automotive is being pushed. Fortunately, whilst you can share a video stream of your self merrily driving alongside, you gained’t be capable of see any shared screens or slides whilst you’re in movement. Microsoft and Mercedes‑Benz are additionally working collectively to combine Microsoft 365 Copilot into automobiles, which is described because the hellish situation of getting “the potential to remodel the car into a 3rd workspace.”
- Microsoft’s Copilot Imaginative and prescient AI can now scan all the things in your display. Microsoft is rolling out an replace to Copilot Imaginative and prescient for Home windows that lets the AI software see all the things in your display. Copilot Imaginative and prescient requires you to share your display with it, not like Recall, which mechanically takes snapshots. It’s just like sharing a display throughout a video name, supplying you with full management over the expertise. The early variations of Copilot Imaginative and prescient are fundamental, but it surely’s clear Microsoft is shifting towards a future the place an AI assistant will be capable of information you thru utilizing apps or video games.
- Skype for Enterprise will get a number of extra months of help. Microsoft is giving Skype for Enterprise a number of further months of help. Whereas the primary Skype client app closed down earlier this 12 months, Skype for Enterprise 2015 and 2019 are set to succeed in finish of help in October. Now, companies will be capable of buy prolonged safety updates for Skype for Enterprise, however solely for an additional six months, bringing prolonged help as much as April 14th, 2026.
- Xbox checks letting you stream your individual video games on PC. The “stream your individual recreation” characteristic on Xbox consoles is arriving on PCs quickly. Xbox Insiders with a Sport Cross Final subscription can now take a look at streaming Xbox video games they personal, together with console-only titles, via the Xbox PC app. Xbox at the moment allows you to stream greater than 250 video games out of your library, along with the titles discovered on Sport Cross.
- Copilot Plus PCs get a brand new describe picture characteristic. Microsoft has began testing a brand new choice within the Click on to Do characteristic that makes use of AI to generate a written description of a picture or chart. It’s arriving first on Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs, and makes use of native AI fashions.
- Microsoft will halt new Workplace options for Home windows 10 in 2026. Microsoft has quietly revealed that it’ll cease including new options to Workplace apps (Microsoft 365) for Home windows 10 customers as of August 2026. Whereas safety updates will stay in place for Workplace apps working on Home windows 10 till October 2028, Microsoft will step by step lower off new characteristic help subsequent 12 months.
- Microsoft has a brand new trick to enhance laptop computer battery life on Home windows. Microsoft has began testing a brand new adaptive vitality saver mode that can mechanically allow or disable the primary vitality saver mode, primarily based in your laptop computer’s workload moderately than simply its quantity of battery life left. It should solely be accessible on gadgets with batteries, and it’ll mechanically allow or disable with out affecting display brightness.
- Home windows 11’s new Black Display screen of Loss of life is now rolling out. Microsoft is altering its Blue Display screen of Loss of life (BSOD) to a newly designed black model. It’s the primary main change to the BSOD since Microsoft added a tragic face to the display in Home windows 8, and it’s now eradicating that frowning face and QR code in favor of a extra simplified black display. I personally assume this seems to be far too just like the black display you see throughout a Home windows replace, however after the blue display CrowdStrike incident, I can see why Microsoft desires to drop the colour blue.
- Microsoft scraps Home windows 11’s simplified taskbar system tray. Microsoft began testing a simplified knowledge and time structure for the system tray and taskbar on Home windows 11 greater than a 12 months in the past, and it has now been scrapped. The structure modifications meant the AM / PM indicators could be eliminated, together with the 12 months on the date. “The suggestions we obtained about that was not nice,” mentioned Brandon LeBlanc, from the Home windows Insider group, on X.
- Google Cloud loses a high-profile AI buyer to Azure. Replit is shifting its coding platform to Microsoft Azure, ditching Google Cloud within the course of. The transfer will enable builders to construct on Replit after which deploy instantly to Microsoft Azure’s infrastructure and market — giving them direct entry to enterprise clients. Google has featured Replit as a key buyer previously, so this one will sting for the third-place cloud supplier.
- Microsoft shareholders prod the corporate’s ties to the Israeli army. Some Microsoft workers have been protesting the corporate’s contracts with the Israeli authorities in latest months, and now shareholders are placing the stress on, too. A bunch of traders is asking the corporate to evaluate the way it identifies clients who misuse its AI instruments. A shareholder decision may very well be voted on on the firm’s annual assembly in December. If profitable, it will ask the board to fee a public report on how Microsoft stops its AI and cloud instruments from being utilized in ways in which violate human rights or worldwide legal guidelines.
- The Home windows and Xbox handheld gaming UI is beginning to present up. As we get nearer to the launch of the Xbox Ally handheld gadgets, elements of how Home windows is adapting to this {hardware} can now be seen within the newest builds of the OS. Home windows watcher phantomofearth has found a brand new setup interface that means it is going to be handheld-friendly. I anticipate that we’ll see much more of the Xbox and Home windows interface within the coming months, as Microsoft and Asus prepare for an October launch.
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