Microsoft Makes AI Skills Mandatory for Employees After Massive Layoffs

By siliconindia  |  Monday, 14 July 2025, 09:59 IST

Microsoft Makes AI Skills Mandatory for Employees After Massive Layoffs
  • Microsoft is making AI skills essential for all roles, linking employee performance evaluations to AI usage.
  • After laying off over 15,000 employees in 2025, the company is shifting focus toward a more AI-driven workforce.
  • Traditional sales roles are being replaced with AI-savvy solutions engineers to better showcase AI products to clients.
Following a wave of layoffs affecting over 15,000 employees this year, Microsoft is now urging its remaining workforce to upskill in artificial intelligence, signaling a deep shift in its organizational priorities. Internal communications accessed by Business Insider reveal that the company is embedding AI proficiency into performance evaluations across roles and levels.
Julia Liuson, President of Microsoft’s Developer Division, emphasized in an internal memo that 'using AI is no longer optional it's core to every role and every level'. Managers have been encouraged to assess employees based on how effectively they adopt and use AI tools, indicating a strategic move toward AI integration in daily operations.
Insiders report that some teams are planning to formally include AI tool usage as a performance criterion in the next fiscal year. This underlines Microsoft's growing effort to incorporate AI across workflows after at least four rounds of layoffs in 2025 the latest impacting over 9,000 staff, including sales and Xbox employees.
In a related restructuring effort, Microsoft is replacing many traditional sales roles with technically skilled 'solutions engineers' tasked with demonstrating AI products directly to clients. The shift reflects Microsoft’s broader strategy to position itself at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption while reshaping its internal culture to match the new tech-driven direction.

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