The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has participated in a podcast with investor Brad Gerstner where he has assured that Microsoft will increase its workforce again in the coming yearsonce the company has completed the deployment of AI in workflows.
The debate between AI and employment has been persistent since it has become the great reference in world technology. Fears of workforce cuts have resulted in layoffs in some organizations and sectors, such as Amazon and a workforce cut in its corporate division of at least 14,000 employees. And it is believed that the worst is yet to come. If it is true that AI is capable of taking over so many human jobs (which is also not clear) or that there is someone to take advantage of to “clean up.”
The Microsoft template
The software giant’s workforce remained unchanged during fiscal 2025, which ended in June. It stood at 228,000 employees, although several earlier rounds of layoffs reduced the total by at least 6,000. In July, Microsoft laid off another 9,000 workers.
Nadella is committed to increasing it in the future. “I would say that we will increase our workforce, but from my point of view, that workforce will grow with much more influence than what we had before AI”. Employees will find new ways to do their work, Nadella said, adding that the company wants to ensure they can access the artificial intelligence features of Microsoft 365 productivity software and the AI scheduling assistant, GitHub Copilot. These services use models from Anthropic and OpenAI.
“I think the process of unlearning and learning will take up the next year or so and then The growth of the workforce will come with maximum use«he explains. Nadella said a similar adjustment occurred decades ago in companies. To prepare forecasts, internal memos were faxed through various offices, followed by email and Excel spreadsheets.
«Right now, any planning, any execution, starts with AI. You research with AI, you think with AI, you share with colleagues and so on»says the CEO of Microsoft. Note that last week Microsoft reported 12% year-over-year growth and showed the widest operating margin since 2002.
