Microsoft workers slam AI push as 60,000 weigh buyouts

Microsoft ↗ 2.04% is facing open criticism from its own staff over its AI strategy just as roughly 60,000 employees weigh whether to accept the largest buyout offer in the company's history. A group calling itself "Concerned Microsoft Workers" has circulated an open letter saying that "working at Microsoft has become joyless and demoralizing," NewsBytes reported. Meanwhile, a June interview in which CEO Satya Nadella pictured millions of AI agents working at the company is going viral on X, according to Windows Latest.windowslatest.com+1

The buyout offer

On October 26, Chief People Officer Amy Coleman introduced a time-limited Voluntary Exit Offer. It covers eligible employees on participating teams in Canada, India, the UK and the US at level 70 and below, according to the official Microsoft blog. The pool is about 27% of the company's workforce, Fortune reported. Employees have until December 9 to decide, and those who accept will leave on December 31 with at least eight weeks of base pay, The New York Times reported. Some data center, sales and marketing staff are excluded, according to Dawn.dawn.com+3

The company does not expect a mass exodus. "We anticipate an under 5% uptake on the 60,000 employees that are eligible for the program," a spokesperson told Fortune. Microsoft has not said whether the program is directly tied to AI, CNBC-TV18 noted.cnbctv18.com+1

Workers push back

The letter began circulating before the buyout was announced. It accuses Microsoft of pursuing AI with a "speed-at-all-costs" ethos and asks the company to stop tying AI use to rewards or reprimands, according to the Times. The signatories say they are pushed to use AI tools without proper training and often spend extra time fixing flawed AI output. They also want Microsoft to reaffirm its 2030 pledges to be carbon negative, water positive and zero waste, CNBC-TV18 reported. The letter also raises concerns about contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israeli military, according to Tuko.tuko.co.ke+2

Nadella's agent vision resurfaces

The viral clip comes from a June 5 episode of Reid Hoffman's Possible podcast. In it, Nadella asked what work looks like when "we have 200,000 employees and we have, let's say 2 million agents or 20 million agents all in a loop," Windows Latest reported. In the same conversation he challenged AI leaders who celebrate job losses, asking, "What are the new jobs? What are the wages of the new jobs that I can now go apply for, train myself for?"windowslatest.com