Microsoft's AI Paradox

Microsoft touts AI as helping save $500 million and increase productivity for businesses, as the company cuts about 15,000 jobs this year alone.

Microsoft promotes AI as being able to save $500 million in operating costs. Photo: Bloomberg.

While thousands of Microsoft employees have just been laid off, the company's leadership is actively promoting the ability to save costs and increase productivity thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).

At a recent internal presentation, Mr. Judson Althoff, Microsoft's chief commercial officer, said that AI tools are being deployed across the entire company system, from sales, customer care to software engineering.

According to a source present at the event, Mr. Althoff affirmed that the application of AI helped Microsoft save more than 500 million USD at care centers alone last year, while improving the satisfaction level of both employees and customers.

The executive also revealed that Microsoft is expanding its use of AI to smaller customer interactions, an initiative that, while still on a limited scale, has already generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

Microsoft declined to comment officially on the information.

Althoff’s announcement comes as tech leaders around the world continue to emphasize the role AI can play in changing the way work is done. Salesforce recently announced that about 30% of its internal work is now done by AI, allowing the company to cut down on human resources costs. Companies like Alphabet and Meta have also said that much of their code is written with AI.

For Microsoft, Althoff said about 35% of the code for new products has been generated by AI, helping to shorten product launch times. Microsoft’s AI programming tool, GitHub Copilot, now has about 15 million users, according to data released in April.

However, along with the positive numbers, Microsoft has cut about 15,000 jobs since the beginning of the year. The latest layoffs target customer-facing departments like sales, and this comes at a time when the company is promoting the application of AI in this field.

In response to concerns about AI replacing humans, Althoff reassured employees that tools like Copilot can help increase sales efficiency. He said employees using AI were able to reach more potential customers, close deals faster, and generate 9% more revenue.

Source: https://znews.vn/ai-cua-microsoft-gay-tranh-luan-post1567510.html