Old-fashioned work, new-fashioned job loss: Warning from Microsoft boss

(Dan Tri) - If you don't change the way you work, you will be replaced by AI. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warns that the hardest thing with AI is not the technology but getting people to change.

While the whole world is rushing to develop and apply artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that the biggest challenge lies not in technology but in people.

AI is profoundly changing the nature of work, forcing traditional operating processes to adapt, he said.

“When you’re working with 99 AI agents assisting you, you can’t just keep doing the same thing,” Nadella said. “Even the scope of your work will change.”

According to Mr. Satya Nadella, the most difficult thing about AI is not the technology, but changing the way people work (Photo: Getty).

AI is reshaping every job position

A prime example cited by the Microsoft CEO is LinkedIn, the company’s own professional social network. According to Nadella, AI is driving the consolidation of previously separate roles such as product design, interface programming, and product management into a new position of “full-stack builder.”

“This is not just a change in technology but a fundamental transformation in the human resources structure,” he said. “The question is how to rebuild the team with completely new roles and tasks?

This also partly explains Microsoft's move to cut 6,000 employees (less than 3% of its global workforce) in May. Although the company asserted that the layoffs were not performance-related, according to Business Insider, the goal was to streamline the middle management apparatus and increase the proportion of programmers on projects. Microsoft wanted each manager to supervise more employees, and prioritized employees who knew how to code instead of just managing projects.

Divided opinion: Is AI an opportunity or a jobs disaster?

While Nadella tries to stay neutral, other tech leaders are divided into two distinct camps of optimists and pessimists.

Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, believes AI will change everyone’s job, including his own. “AI has already changed my job,” Huang said at the Vivatech conference in Paris last month. “Some roles will disappear, but at the same time, AI opens up unprecedented creative opportunities.”

On the contrary, Dario Amodei - CEO of Anthropic, one of the prominent AI startups today - gave a chilling warning that AI could eliminate 50% of primary office jobs within the next 5 years.

“We, the people who create this technology, have an obligation to be honest about what’s going to happen. But I don’t think a lot of people really realize that,” Amodei told Axios.

"Everyone has to learn how to use AI"

In that context, business leaders are calling on employees at all levels to proactively approach and familiarize themselves with AI as soon as possible.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently sent out an internal memo, asking all employees to “actively learn, attend workshops, trainings, and experiment with AI whenever possible.”

He was unequivocal about the prospect of layoffs: "AI will change the way we work, and that means the company's workforce will be downsized in the next few years."

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, believes that AI is no longer a “high-tech thing” but should become part of the daily work of every team, from small startups to large corporations.

While AI creates countless new opportunities, it also poses a difficult question for every organization: innovate or fall behind. And as Satya Nadella has said, the barrier is not technology but people’s habits, mindsets, and willingness to change.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/lam-viec-kieu-cu-mat-viec-kieu-moi-canh-bao-tu-ong-chu-microsoft-20250627112822134.htm