According to Bloomberg, Microsoft plans to re-evaluate thousands of its employees next month, mainly for sales teams with unknown numbers, which will be the latest initiative of Microsoft ‘ s third round of large-scale lay-offs this year, as well as to streamline the company ‘ s team at a time when it invests heavily in the area of artificial intelligence.
Informed sources revealed that it is expected that the downsizing plan will be announced early next month after the end of the Microsoft fiscal year. According to the source, the reduction will not be limited to the sales team, and the timing may still change. By the end of June 2024, Microsoft had 228,000 employees, of whom 45,000 were in sales and marketing.
In recent years, Microsoft has undergone large-scale staff reductions to restructure its staff. Earlier this year, Microsoft cut off 1900 game sector employees, mainly in the light of the violent snowstorm. In addition, the 650 staff reductions in September last year were also aimed at the play sector, mainly at business and support positions, but Microsoft stated at that time that it would not cancel any game, equipment or experience and that it would not close any studios.
In April of this year, Microsoft informed its staff of plans to place third-party companies in charge of more software sales to small and medium-sized clients. Amy Hood, Chief Finance Officer of Microsoft, stated at the April Press conference that the company was focusing on “building high-performance teams and improving agility by reducing relief”.
In May of this year, Microsoft announced a reduction of 6,000 personnel, mainly in the product and engineering sectors, with virtually no impact on client-oriented jobs such as sales and marketing. Microsoft indicated that the organizational structure would be regularly assessed to ensure growth in investment. As the company invests tens of billions of dollars in servers and data centres, the executive has promised and warned staff on Wall Street that other areas of expenditure would be strictly controlled.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft ‘ s huge investment in artificial intelligence has prompted it to reassess resource allocation in order to optimize operational efficiency. The award may involve multiple teams, such as sales, games and security, and is yet to be published.
