After the significant layoffs which have impacted over 15,000 employees this year, the American multinational technology major Microsoft is now urging its remaining workforce to enhance their AI skills.
Microsoft Urging Employees To Invest In Their Own AI Skills
In the same regards, the company is emphasizing its importance across all roles by integrating AI usage into performance reviews.
It appears that the technology conglomerate is encouraging the remaining employees to “invest in their own AI skills”.
This happens following a series of massive layoffs that have eliminated over 15,000 positions across multiple divisions this year said the sources.
So far, Microsoft has conducted at least four major rounds of workforce reductions in 2025.
They have trimmed approximately 9,000 jobs in the latest round that particularly impacted the Xbox gaming division and sales teams.
Prior to this the technology firm had reduced 6,000 positions in May and hundreds more in June.
A media report informed that the company laid off around 850 people in its home state of Washington.
AI Usage Mandatory For Performance Reviews
The artificial intelligence usage “should be part of your holistic reflections on an individual’s performance and impact” said Julia Liuson, president of Microsoft’s Developer Division, while instructing the managers.
Further Liuson declared in the internal emails that “using AI is no longer optional — its core to every role and every level,” as quoted by the media.
Moving ahead the IT firm is considering adding formal AI usage metrics to performance reviews considering it pushes for greater adoption of its Copilot AI services.
Besides this, a few teams are exploring including specific AI usage benchmarks in next fiscal year’s employee evaluations, said the sources familiar with the plans.
Latest Strategy Targeting Traditional Roles
It is noteworthy here that these latest cuts by Microsoft primarily targeted traditional salespeople, the ones which company plans to replace with more technical “solutions engineers” capable of demonstrating AI tools directly to customers.
In a memo sent the day before layoffs, the Sales chief Judson Althoff outlined plans to become “the Frontier AI Firm” and “establish a Copilot on every device and across every role.”
The IT service provider is streamlining operations to balance costs while positioning itself for long-term AI dominance after its massive investments of approx $80 billion in AI infrastructure this fiscal year.
