Microsoft, maxi exodus incentive plan: up to 60 thousand people involved

MILAN – Artificial intelligence is preparing to make more victims in the world of work, precisely among companies that are investing massively in AI. The latest in chronological order is now Microsoft, which has developed an incentive plan for the early voluntary redundancy of up to approximately 60,000 employees in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom.

“This offering gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new opportunity to make this transition now, with support,” Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a communication to employees Monday. Workers will receive benefits similar to those provided in a normal severance package, the spokesperson explained. Some categories of workers, including some staff working in data centers, sales and marketing, will be excluded from the initiative, the spokesperson specified.

The Redmond group is increasing investments in data centers to cope with the high demand related to artificial intelligence, providing cloud services to companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and many others, putting the group's finances under pressure at the same time. In April, the company had already announced its first voluntary retirement program, which approximately 7% of employees in the United States could access.