According to the Wall Street Journal, the job losses, which will hit sales and other teams, are expected to land around the start of July when Microsoft’s new financial year kicks in. The exact number of voles who will exit the building with their personal belongings in old photocopy boxes is still up in the air.

These layoffs will be in addition to the 6,000 roles that vanished in May, affecting product and software developers worldwide. 

Microsoft is far from alone. Firms from Amazon to pharma giants are busy shedding roles while touting the marvels of artificial intelligence as their workforce’s replacement. On Tuesday, Amazon boss Andy Jassy said the retailer would slim down staffing in the coming years thanks to AI doing away with entire roles.

Redmond is flogging its AI wares to other companies promising automated nirvana while splurging billions on new data centres to keep it all running.

Microsoft ended its last financial year in June 2024 with about 228,000 staff. Around 45,000 of those were in sales and marketing, making it one of the likely hotspots for the cull.

In January 2023, the company axed 10,000 jobs after the pandemic’s hiring spree fizzled out. It later took a chainsaw to its gaming division following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood was unapologetic when she told investors in April, “We continue to focus on building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers.”